THE VASCULAR FLORA OF MACQUARIE ISLAND.—CHEESEMAN. 
17 
• CRUCIFERAE. 
Card amine corymbosa Hook. f. 
Cardamine corymbosa Hook. f. FI. Antarct. T (1844), p. 6, also Ic. Plant, t. 686 (1844); 
Schulz in Engl. Jahr. XXXII (1903), p. 561. C. liirsuta Linn. Sp. Plant. 655 var. 
corymbosa Hook. f. Hanclb. N.Z. FI. (1864), p. 12; Clieesem. Subantarctic Islands 
of N.Z. II (1909), p. 398. 
Macquarie Island — Creek beds and wet ground near the sea. A. Hamilton (1894); 
H. Hamilton (1912-1913). 
In the “ Subantarctic Islands of New Zealand” (p. 399), 1 followed Hooker and 
others in retaining this as a variety of C. liirsuta. At the same time I expressed the 
opinion that many of the southern forms then included with C. liirsuta would ultimately 
be separated from that plant. Having now had an opportunity of studying an excellent 
series of C. corymbosa gathered by H. Hamilton, and of comparing the specimens with 
others collected in the Auckland and Campbell Islands by Tennant and Laing, I am 
now satisfied that C. corymbosa must be regarded as distinct. Whether it should also 
include some mountain forms from New Zealand proper, as has been done by Schulz, 
is a matter that I cannot go into in the present memoir. 
H. Hamilton’s specimens agree fairly with Hooker’s description and the plate 
given in the leones Plantarum in having a short perennial rootstock from the top of 
which spread a few filiform branchlets. But Hooker figures the leaves as being mostly 
2-jugate with a terminal leaflet not remarkably larger than the lateral; whereas in the 
Macquarie Island plant there are first of all numerous simple long-petioled rounded 
leaves, and then others which are seldom more than 1-jugate (trifoliolate), and in which 
the terminal leaflet is many times larger than the lateral. The description of the leaves 
given by Schulz in Engler’s Jahrbuch suits the Macquarie Island plant much better 
than Hooker’s. The inflorescence is very curious. Usually the flowers are solitary in 
the axils of the leaves on a long slender peduncle. Sometimes two or more of these 
peduncles may spring from a single axil, thus forming a kind of false umbel. More 
rarely there is a few-flowered raceme at the top of the stem, the inflorescence then being 
much more normal. 
H. Hamilton’s specimens were carefully but unsuccessfully searched for the 
remarkable cleistogamic flowers discovered by Schulz in the examination of some of 
Hooker’s specimens collected more than seventy years ago, and which I also observed 
in one of Tennant’s collected at Port Ross. I have mentioned in the “ Subantarctic 
Islands” that Schulz’s statement to the effect that the ordinary flowers are apetalous 
is not correct, and my examination of Hamilton’s Macquarie Island plant enables me 
to say that the flowers when they first expand are always furnished with petals, 
although these sometimes drop off very shortly after fertilisation. 
In addition to the New Zealand Subantarctic Islands, Dr. Schulz has recorded 
C. corymbosa from Orange Harbour, Fuegia. 
38864—c 
