PSEUDOPANAX CRASSIFOLIUM, Seemann. 
THE HOROEKA. 
ARALIACE/E. 
ORDER 
(Plates XXXVIII., XXXVIIIa., XXXVIIIp., XXXVIIIc., and XXXVIIIv.) 
Mr. CoLenso informs me that this tree is termed horoeka by the Maoris; and I 
learn from the Ven. Archdeacon Williams that it is also known as hohoeka, 
a name which is stated by Dr. Lyall to be used in the South Island. It is 
commonly termed lancewood by the settlers in the North Island, and grass-tree 
by those in the South. 
This species was discovered during Cook’s first voyage, and it need cause 
no surprise to learn that the remarkable difference between the young and 
mature states led so able a botanist as Dr. Solander to consider them distinct 
plants: the young flowerless state received the MS. name of Xerophylla longi- 
folia, and the mature state was named Aralia crassifolia. It was subsequently 
described under the latter name by A. Cunningham in his ‘‘ Prodromus of the 
Botany of New Zealand,” and in 1843 was figured by Sir William Hooker in 
‘‘Tcones Plantarum,” t. pixxxrv. In 1853 it appeared under the same name in 
the ‘‘ Flora Nove-Zelandiz.’’ In 1865 it was referred to Pseudopanax by See- 
mann; and in ‘‘ The Handbook of the New Zealand Flora,’’ published in 1867, 
it was divided into two species, the mature state being described as Panax 
crassifolium, and the young state with deflexed leaves as a new species, under 
the name of P. longissimum. Sir Joseph Hooker was led to this conclusion from 
a young plant, under cultivation at Kew, having exhibited its peculiar character 
unchanged for fifteen years: the error was corrected in the Supplement to the 
Handbook. 
A fruiting specimen, with the young leaf, was figured by Mr. Buchanan, 
F.L.S., in the ninth volume of ‘‘ The Transactions of the New Zealand Insti- 
tute,” t. xx., under the name of Panax longisstimum ; while an account of its 
chief variations was published by the writer in ‘‘ The Transactions of the New 
Zealand Institute,’’ vol. x., p. xxxi., Appendix. 
In its mature state it forms a round-headed tree, having an extreme height 
of 5oft., and a trunk of about 18in. in diameter. Larger specimens are 
extremely rare. In its progress to maturity it passes through a series of changes 
still more remarkable than those of P. ferox, to which it 1s closely related.* It 
is one of the first trees to attract the attention of the traveller in forest districts. 
Its seed-leaves do not differ widely from those of P. ferox; but the leaves 
next produced are very different: they are distinctly stalked, tin. to 2in. in 
length, rhomboid or elongate-rhomboid in shape, and sharply toothed or deeply 
_ lobed, bearing some resemblance to those of the common hawthorn. Succeeding 
leaves become longer and of uniform width, until they sometimes attain the length 
of 43in., while they scarcely exceed din. in width, and are invariably deflexed : in 
this stage the leaves are thick and leathery in texture, and acute at the apex, 
* Ses ante, Pl. XXIII, to Pl. XXVI. 
