GENERAL NOTES. 26 I 



larger Aciphyllas at any rate are doomed to speedy extermination. In 

 the closely stocked lowlands their extinction though less rapid seems 

 equally certain. And it is chiefly in stations intermediate in elevation 

 between these and where the country is not very closely stocked, that 

 these interesting and curious plants are likely to survive as a permanent 

 but scarce element in the native vegetation. — D. Petkie. 



Note on Leucopogon Fraseri, A. Cunn. — In May of the present 

 year, I gathered in the neighbourhood of Kelso, a number of specimens 

 of Leucopogon Fraseri, in which the inflorescence presents a peculiarity 

 which I have not seen noticed in any account of the plant. The flowers 

 instead of being solitary occur in pairs that are sessile on the ends of 

 the short peduncles. In these specimens a solitary flower on each 

 peduncle is quite exceptional. Each flower of the pair is sometimes of 

 the same size as the other, but more commonly one is larger and better 

 developed than the other, which is however by no means rudimentary. 



I do not know whether it is generally known that the flowers of 

 this species are well formed in the autumn, and the buds undergo but 

 slight further growth before opening in spring. The stamens and pistil 

 are wrapped up in a very dense coating of long hairs that grow 

 outwards and downwards from the upper half of the corolla. It is 

 evident that one of the chief functions of this outgrowth of the corolla 

 is to shelter the reproductive organs contained in the bud, which are 

 exposed to all the frosts of the sharp winter of this district. It has 

 been supposed that the sole use of the hairy coating of the corolla was 

 to minister to cross fertilisation by the agency of insects, but it is more 

 likely that its primary use is to serve for the safe nursing of the bud 

 during the winter. This view is in no way inconsistent with its 

 further use in promoting cross fertilisation ; the double use, indeed, 

 affords only another illustration of the fact that an organ originally 

 fitted to serve one purpose, is often turned to account for another of 

 secondary, but still of imjiortant utility to the organism. 



In Pentachondra pwmila, Br., a similar coating of hairs invests the 

 interior of the corolla, and it would be interesting to know, if in this 

 case also, it was primarily designed to form a protection for the bud 

 during the winter season. I have not as yet had opportunity to 

 examine the winter state of this plant, but I hope soon to be able to 

 throw some light on the question. 



In the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora," the specific name 

 of the present species of Leucopogon is printed Frazeri, but in 

 Cunningham's " Precursor " the name is printed Fraseri. I do not 

 know on what grounds the spelling Frazeri, was adopted by Sir Joseph 

 Hooker. — D. Petrie. 



History of the JVIoas. — From a popular article under the above 

 title, written by Professor Hutton. for the "Weekly Press," we extract 

 the following concluding portion : — 



