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326 NOTES ON SOME PLANTS OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND,
the living state by local botanists, ought to lead to a great reduction
of the present number of book-species !
1. P. prostrata, Vahl. Sand-dunes about mouth of Kaikorai
Stream ; Kaikorai Hill ; Signal Hill, North-east Valley, Dunedin ; November
and December, in flower, W. L. L. Dr. Hooker named my
Otago plant P. Urvilleuna ; but, in his ' Handbook' (p. 244), he de-
scribes the latter as a North Island species only, and evidently refers
such plants as mine to P. prostrata. Without a fuller suite of speci-
mens before me, it is impossible to give a final opinion ; but from com-
paring Dr. Hooker's descriptions of P. Urvilleana and P. prostrata
with each other and with my plants, I find myself unable to recognize
any valid specific distinction between them. In some of my plants
the villosity of the young and ultimate ramuscles is marked ; and the
distinction between whiteness and greyness of the hairs is not one that
is very evident or satisfactory. In all my specimens the leaves are
similar, of comparatively uniform character, about -^ in. long, mostly
ovate or ovate-oblong, subacute or obtuse at tip, crowded more or less,
and frequently imbricate. Branches sometimes 16-20 in. long. Some
forms of the shrub are erect or suberect ; the same form occurring on
the sea-level (sand-dunes) and on the hill-ranges {e.g. Kaikorai, 1093
feet), riower-tube as villous as the ultimate ramuscles, and with the
same white, long, silky hairs. Perianth-lobes shorter than the tube.
Of teu New Zealand species of Plmelea, at least five others (appa-
rently) occur in Otago, some of them ascending to elevations of
5500 ft. (on the Canterbury Alps, P. Lyallii, Hook, f.), viz. P. Gnidia,
Forst. ; P. Trave?'sii, Hook. f. ; P. virgata, Vahl ; P. sericeo-villosa.
Hook. f.
Genus V. Convolvulus {Calystegia, Fl. N. Z.).
Another of the numerous Otago genera that require revision by local
botanists, with a view to the clearer definition, on the one hand, or the
fusion on the other, of itsNpresent book-species. O. Tugurioruni, C. Sol-
danella, C. sepium, and C. erubescens—with the British C. arvensis, L.
appear to me to pass into each other by imperceptible gradations ;
I do not see where or how the specific demarcation-lines or defitiitions
can be properly drawn !
.
—
and
1. C. Tuguriorum, Br. Among " scrub," and in the forest, Stoney-
hill bush ; December, in flower, W. L. L. A climber, with the habit,
in certain respects, of C. sejnum, and in others of C. arvensis. The