276 The N.Z. Journal of Science and Technolog-y. [July 
as if embedded in it, are the numerous thickened apical surfaces of the 
leaves, resembling glossy green tubercles. The size of these tubercles and 
the amount of white tomentum between them differ considerably in 
different individuals, so that some plants look much greener than others. 
Generally the green part of the leaves forms less than half the surface of 
the cylindrical stem-like shoot. 
Lazniewski in 1896* described the anatomy of the leaves of Helichyrsum 
coralloides from specimens furnished by myself but wrongly identified by 
me as H. Selago, under which name the results were unfortunately 
published. The following are the main features of the anatomy of the 
tubercles. There is a thick and shining cuticle, beneath which is a layer 
of epidermal cells with extremely thick outer walls ; then there is one 
layer of rather short palisade cells, and then spongy parenchyma. 
Stomata occur only on the inner surface of the leaves. The author 
points out how this structure of the leaf reduces transpiration on the one 
hand, and on the other favours photosynthesis. 
3. The Seedling Form and its Environment. 
The foregoing account of the adult forms of Helichrysum coralloides 
and their environment has paved the way towards a proper understanding 
of the seedling. 
Only one seedling was seen. It was 8 cm. high. The main stem 
was straight, unbranched for its upper 3-7 cm., but from near its base 
eleven short branches were given off. The root was stout, woody, and, 
judging from the broken portion, not less than 7-5 cm. long. The whole 
plant, as may be seen from the figure, was densely leafy with white 
woolly leaves sheathing at the base, but in the early leaves with the 
blade spread out. There was no hint from any of these early leaves of 
the remarkable adult leaf-form. 
The fully developed leaves of the main stem were broadly spathulate, 
about 12 mm. long and 7-5 mm. broad, densely covered on both surfaces 
with long white entangled silky hairs with the green of the leaf showing 
faintly, flat or more or less concave, obtuse, entire. 
On the younger stems the leaves were much smaller, imbricating, and 
much less hairy on the upper portion of the under-surface, which also was 
distinctly green. Here was a hint at the ultimate character of the leaf, 
while on the short stems, seen in the figure, near the middle of the seedling 
leaves, is a stronger hint still of the eventual tubercle. 
The seedling grew in a rock-crevice on the shady side of the gorge of 
the River Yeo, which rises in the Turk’s Head Mountain (Inland Kaikoura 
Mountains), at an altitude of about 3,200 ft. On such shady rocks were 
many examples of the shrub. Owing to its comparatively small size the 
seedling is less exposed to wind and in a better position regarding moisture 
when the rock is wet than is the adult. It can therefore easily afford to 
possess, as it does, a considerably less xerophytic form. Nor does the 
adult growing in such a shady gorge need anything like the xerophytic 
structure necessary to permit it to occupy wind-swept dry subalpine rocks. 
Indeed, epharmonically, it does assume a less xerophytic form in its greater 
stature, more open habit, longer and less rigid branches which droop more 
or less. Generally, too, its companion plants are much less xerophytic still. 
Looking at the seedling in the figure, its resemblance to Haastia Sin- 
clairii is rather striking. The latter is a plant of subalpine and alpine 
* Beitrago zur Biologie der Alpenpflanzen, Flora, Bd. 82, pp. 11-13. 
