L. Cockayne 
118 
(a) Phormium Colensoi x tenax. 
Although these species are of extremely wide range and tolerate 
many habitats, some suiting both, yet they seldom grow side by 
side. But in two localities I have seen them in close proximity 
along with many intermediates which were easily recognisable by 
the capsules, combining the erect, short, blunt form of tenax and the 
drooping long twisted form of Colensoi. 
(b) Ranunculus Buchanani x Lyallii (= R. Matthewsii Cheesem.). The 
hybrid origin suggested in The Vegetation of New Zealand , p. 359. 
Ranunculus Lyallii is of wide range in subalpine herb-fields of 
the South Island from latitude 42 0 30' and it extends to Stewart 
Island, but R. Buchanani is usually found at a higher altitude and 
on more stony ground; also it is confined to the Fiord Botanical 
District and parts of the South Otago Botanical District, adjacent 
thereto. In a few localities the species have come together and there 
are to be found many transitional forms between them, as exhibited 
in combinations of the huge peltate entire leaf of Lyallii and the 
smaller reniform ternatisect leaf of Buchanani. The large flowers 
also betray the Lyallii relationship. Cheeseman [Manual, p. 1133) 
described R. Matthewsii from only two specimens, which he stated 
came close to R. Buchanani but were stouter, almost glabrous (as is 
Lyallii) and with “more sparingly divided leaves and larger flowers.” 
Specimens sent to me some years ago by Mr W. Willcox at once gave 
me the idea of their hybrid origin. 
(c) Edwardsia microphylla x prostrata. 
The first-named is a small erect tree, principally of rain-forest, 
its outskirts, and tussock-grassland, which has a persistent juvenile 
form of divaricating habit. E. prostrata is a prostrate shrub of exactly 
the same growth-form as juvenile E. microphylla, which grows in 
open situations on stony ground in a climate of but moderate rainfall. 
Occasionally the two species meet, as in parts of the Northeastern 
Botanical District, and hybrids intermediate in stature, habit, 
flowers and fruit appear in abundance. 
(d) Olearia angustifolia x Colensoi (— 0 . Traillii T. Kirk). 
Olearia Colensoi, a common shrub of subalpine-scrub in the 
wetter mountains of the South Island and also on the main chain of 
the North Island, descends to the seashore in parts of Stewart Island. 
There, if it meets the coastal shrub of that island, Olearia angusti¬ 
folia, the intermediate forms known as 0 . Traillii occur, but not 
abundantly. The leaves are narrower than those of 0 . Colensoi, but 
