Lepidium. | CRUCIFERAE. 471 
Willd. Sp. Plant. iti (1800) 437; A. Cunn. Precur, (1838) n. 628; Raoul 
Choix (1846) 47: Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 15; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 
14; 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 34; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 38, and 
Ill. N.Z. Fl. i (1914) t. 10; Thellung Monog. Lepidium (1906) 291. Nastur- 
tium oleraceum eran Revis. 1 (1891) 937. 
Var. frondosum /#”. Kirk l.c.—Stout, fleshy, much branched. Leaves large, 2-6 in., 
broadly oblong or cuneate-oblong, serrate. 
Var. acutidentatum 7’. Kirk l.c.—Branches slender, leafy. Leaves 1-2 in., oblong- 
or linear-spathulate, acutely toothed towards the tip. 
Var. serrulatum Thellung Monog. Lepidiwm (1906) 293.—Leaves obovate, finely and 
regularly serrate from the middle to the apex. 
Kermapec Isuanps: TT. F. C., Miss Shakespear! W. R. B. Oliver! Nortu 
[stanp: Var. frondosum : Banks and Solander ; Three Kings Islands, Little Barrier 
Island, Cuvier Island, Karewa Island, 7. Ff. C.; Port Knights Islands, Cockayne ; 
coast near Wellington, B. C. Aston! Var. acutidentatum : Hen and Chickens Islands, 
Little Barrier Island, and in many localities near the sea, 7’. Pints SoutH ISLAND : 
Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander, J. H. Macmahon! Banks Peninsula, 
R. M. Laing! J. B. Armstrong ; Oamaru, Port Chalmers, Catlin’s River, Petrie / 
Srewart Isuanp: 7. Kirk, Orosby Smith, Poppelwell. Tue Snares: 7’. Kirk, B.C. 
Aston! AvcKLAND ISLANDS: General Bolton, T. Kirk! J. S. Tennant! CHATHAM 
Tsnanps: H. H. Travers, fF. A. D. Cox! Nau. November—March. 
Best known as ‘‘ Cook’s scurvy-grass.”” The entire plant has a heavy disagreeable 
smell and hot biting taste. It was originally discovered by Banks and Solander during 
Cook’s first voyage, and at that time must have been abundant, for Dr. Solander speaks 
of it as ‘“‘ copiose in littoribus marinis,”” and Cook states that boat-loads of it were 
collected and used as an antiscorbutic by the crew. It is now quite extinct in several 
of the localities he visited, and is fast becoming rare in others. Its disappearance is 
due to cattle and sheep, which greedily eat it down in any locality they can reach. 
The figure in the unpublished Banksian plates represents var. frondosum ; but the 
specimens in the set of Banks and Solander’s plants presented to the Dominion by the 
Trustees of the British Museum all belong to var. acutidentatum. 
2. L. Banksii 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 35.—Perfectly glabrous. 
Stems slender, flexuous, branched, suberect, 12-18 in. long. Leaves 1—2 in., 
distant, oblong- or linear-spathulate, sharply serrate or toothed above, 
below gradually narrowed into a short petiole or almost sessile. Racemes 
terminal. Flowers small. Stamens 4. Pods ovate, cordate at the base, 
slightly winged, broadly notched above; style equal to or slightly exceed- 
ing the notch.—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 39;. Thellung Monog. 
_Lepidium (1906) 300. L. oleraceum A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 310, 
t. 35 (not of Forst.). 5 es 
At > irretenn |]. Kh, iSGG: BS (Skua, %). 
Sourn Istanp: Marlborough—Queen Charlotte Sound and Astrolabe Harbour, 
A. Richard ; Pelorus Sound, J. Rutland! Kenepuru, J. H. Macmahon! Westland— 
Open Bay Islands, Cockayne (fide Thellung). TON: ZL. wo: Za. | 1964,) 
Mr. Kirk appears to have founded this species on A. Hichard’s plate, quoted 
above, and on a single specimen collected by Mr. Rutland in Pelorus Sound. Judging 
from this scanty material, there appears to be little to separate it from L. oleracewm 
var. acutidentatum, except the slightly winged pod notched at the summit. But some 
of Mr. Petrie’s Otago specimens of L, oleracewm show a minute notch, as also do those 
collected by Mr. Cox on the Chatham Islands. I much fear that the species is of 
doubtful validity. 
3. L. obtusatum 7. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. inst. xxiv (1892) 423.— 
Stems leafy, branched, prostrate or suberect, 6-12in. long. Lower leaves 
on broad flat petioles, sometimes 2 in. long; blade 1-2 in., oblong or oblong- 
