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PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XI, October, 1957 
Fig. 3. X. callistemon. Hen Island, New Zealand; on cliff edge, sea in background. 1933. ( Arthropodium cirratum 
in foreground.) Photograph by L. M. Cranwell. 
1925: 13) records it from "Montagne des 
Sources, Araucaria M uelleri- forest , 800 m,, 
not uncommon”; his photograph (Joe. cit. 
Fig. 8) shows this as a rather open forest 
where much light reaches the rocky floor. 
K. H. Marshall (1954: 21) mentions, above 
the "clouds” forest, "a small natural clearing 
of about one square chain, at 5,000 feet, just 
crammed full of xeronema in full bloom.” 
On the New Zealand offshore islands good 
drainage and plenty of light seem essentail 
for X. callistemon , as on ledges and tops of 
cliffs to an altitude of 300 metres, and, on the 
northern island of the Poor Knights, on flat 
ground where rhyolitic soil is "very poor, dry 
and inhospitable” (Cranwell, 1937: 104, pL 
26). Seedlings are established only in well-lit 
places. On cliff faces plants that have accu- 
mulated great masses of leaf- debris not in- 
frequently break off. Those that fall to the 
floor of rather dense forest do not long sur- 
vive in the shade there. Some tumble into the 
sea and such a clump was found washed up 
on one of the Chickens Islands where the 
species is not known to grow (Cranwell and 
Moore, 1935: 309); it is quite unlikely that 
the sea could ever lift a whole plant to a place 
where it could establish afresh and so extend 
Fig. 4. A-C: X. callistemon. A, flower from middle of raceme, garden-grown by Mrs. A. R. Pickmere (BD 
5 0094 A); B, capsule, garden-grown by Dr. W. R. B. Oliver; C, seed, Poor Knights Island, keel view: pale pro- 
cesses confined to outer rounded surface and seen only peripherally, keel and inner faces smooth. D-F: X. moorei. 
D, flower from middle of raceme, Mont Mou (BD 83585B); E, capsule, Montagne des Sources (BD 87634); 
F, seed, Montagne des Sources, lateral view showing dark processes on rounded outer surface to right and on 
keel to left. Scale applies to flowers and capsules; seeds drawn twice as large; enlarged anther shows filament 
inserted in pit between anther lobes. Drawings by Nancy M, Adams. 
