Plate XIII. Fig. 1, longitudinal section of a ripe berry showing the nucules; fig. 2, lateral, and fig. 3, back view of a nucule removed; fig. 4, longitudinal section of do.; fig. 5, front, and fig. 6, lateral view of the seed removed from the nucule; fig. 7, longitudinal section of seed, showing the embryo; fig. 8, cotyledons:—all magnified.
2. Coprosma affinis, Hook. fil.; arborea, glaberrima, foliis petiolatis elliptico-lanceolatis acutis, floribus terminalibus solitariis sessilibus. (Tab. XIV.)
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; in low woods near the sea.
This plant, which I found only in the state of young fruit, is so nearly allied to the preceding, that it is not without much hesitation I retain it as a distinct species, which I do on the ground of there being, in a large suite of specimens of C. fœtidissima, none with the leaves intermediate in form between that species and the present. It may be readily recognised by the larger and longer leaves, which are decidedly acuminated at the apex: its season of flowering too seems to be different.
Plate XIV. Fig. 1, an immature berry:—magnified.
3. Coprosma cuneata, Hook. fil.; fruticosa, glabra, ramis attenuatis rigidis, ramulis pubescentibus, foliis fasciculatis parvis rigidis coriaceis anguste cuneatis apice emarginato-truncatis sessilibus enerviis subtus pallidioribus, stipulis apice barbatis, floribus solitariis, fructibus in ramulis ultimis terminalibus solitariis globosis. (Tab. XV.)
β. foliis longioribus, apice rotundatis.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; in woods near the sea. β. In ravines at an altitude of 900 feet on the former, and near the sea in Campbell's Island.
The investigation of the genus Coprosma, and especially of the small-leaved species, is attended with very great difficulty. Those of the extreme southern parts of the New Zealand group seem different from such as inhabit the northern islands, and these again from the Australian and Tasmanian kinds. In each locality, however, the forms seem so protean, that more than words is required to assist in their determination, whilst the paucity of specimens hitherto received has obliged botanists to separate dissimilar specimens of what a more copious supply might prove to belong to the same plant. It is to avoid any further confusion that I have ventured to figure three species, of which I have no materials for such an analysis of the flower and fruit as a good botanical drawing should possess. The C. cuneata, in its ordinary form especially, appears one of the most distinct of these, and has the leaves invariably very blunt, larger at the upper extremity, and then retuse or decidedly notched: they are rigid and coriaceous in texture, and very uniform in size. In the woods near the sea it forms a remarkably harsh, woody, and repeatedly branched shrub, whose stems are often 2 inches in diameter at the base, and covered with a rough black bark. The pale, but bright, red of the berries, which are abundantly produced, forms a very pretty contrast amongst the deep shining foliage.
Plate XV. Fig. 1, ripe berries; fig. 2, longitudinal transverse section of do.; fig. 3, nucules removed from the berry; fig. 4, transverse section of a nucule; fig. 5, front; and fig. 6, side view of seed; fig. 7, longitudinal section of do. showing the embryo:—all magnified.
4. Coprosma myrtillifolia, Hook. fil.; fruticosa, ramulis pubescenti-cinereis, foliis subfasciculatis parvis lato-lanceolatis subcarnosis brevissime petiolatis acutiusculis glabris subtus obscure nervosis, baccis solitariis.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; in ravines about 600 feet above the sea.
A small and almost leafless bush, which, like its congeners, is very apt to vary in its mode of growth. In the ordinary state it grows 3–4 feet high, and from the lower parts of the stems and branches being bare of
