Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/43

A variable plant, but easily recognised by its great size and large showy white flowers. The leaves are usually entire, but are occasionally lobulate, especially in young plants. Mr. Kirk's variety linearis, which has narrow-linear leaves, 4–6 in. long by barely ½ in. broad, appears to me to be only a transient juvenile form.

2. C. hexasepala, D.C. Syst. i. 146.—Much smaller and more slender than C. indivisa. Leaves 3-foliolate, pale-green, coriaceous, glabrous; leaflets 1–3 in. long, stalked, narrow ovate-oblong or ovate-cordate, acute or acuminate, usually irregularly toothed or lobed, rarely entire. Flowers numerous, 1–1½ in. diam., white. Sepals 6–8, linear-oblong, obtuse, downy. Anthers long, linear, obtuse. Achenes numerous, narrow-ovoid, pilose.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 637; Raoul, Choix, 47; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 2; Kirk, Students' Fl. 3. C. hexapetala, Forst. Prodr. n. 230; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 288. C. Forsteri, Gmel. Syst. 873. C. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 6, t. 1 (not of Handb. N.Z. Fl.).

North Island: From the Kaipara Harbour to Cook Strait; not uncommon, especially in the Upper Waikato and Taupo districts. South Island: Queen Charlotte Sound, Forster; near Moutere (Nelson), T. F. C. Recorded from Canterbury (Armstrong), Otago (Lindsay), and the Bluff Hill (Kirk). Pikiarero. September–November.

Easily separated from C. indivisa by the smaller size, narrower pale-green leaves, which are almost always toothed, and by the smaller flowers.

3. C. australis, T. Kirk, Students' Fl. 3.—Stems and branches slender, much branched, glabrous or pubescent at the tips. Leaves 3-foliolate, glabrous, somewhat coriaceous (especially in the small-leaved forms); leaflets very variable in size, ⅓–1 in. long, pinnate or pinnately lobed, segments or lobes usually again toothed or lobed. Flowers white, ½–1 in. diam., in few-flowered panicles or solitary on long slender peduncles clustered in the axils of the leaves. Sepals 5–8, downy. Achenes narrowed into the style, usually pilose, sometimes glabrous when fully mature.

South Island: Hilly and mountain districts in Nelson and Canterbury, not uncommon. 500–3500 ft. November–January.

A puzzling plant, large states of which can only be separated from C. hexasepala by the pinnately divided leaflets, while smaller forms come very nearly to C. Colensoi var. rutaefolia, from which, however, it can usually be distinguished by the larger white flowers and more pointed sepals.

4. C. Colensoi, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 2.—Stems and branches slender, glabrous or silky at the tips. Leaves 3-foliolate, membranous or slightly coriaceous; leaflets stalked, ¹⁄₃–1¹⁄₄ in. long, crenate, unequally toothed or 3-lobed, or again ternately or pinnately divided. Flowers greenish-yellow, ¹⁄₂–1 in. diam., in few- or many-flowered panicles, or more usually solitary on slender peduncles fascicled in the axils of the leaves. Sepals 5–8, oblong, silky. Anthers linear. Achenes silky or sometimes nearly glabrous when mature.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 3. C. hexasepala, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 7 (not of D.C.).