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Cheeseman.—Notes on the Three Kings Islands.
147

not. Probably many years will elapse before the peculiar plants and birds are in any way interfered with by human residents.


Descriptions of the new Species.

1. Pittosporum fairchildi, n. sp.

A small tree, 8–15 feet in height; branches rather slender, bark brownish. Young branchlets and peduncles more or less covered with whitish tomentum, which gradually disappears as they mature. Leaves entire, alternate, often crowded, variable in shape, obovate, elliptic- obovate, or elliptic-oblong, 2–4 inches long, obtuse or acute, gradually narrowed into short stout petioles, coriaceous, bright-green and glossy above, paler below, margins flat, veins finely reticulated, covered with silky white hairs when young, but quite glabrous when old. Flowers purplish, ½ inch long, in terminal 2–4-flowered fasicles, pedicels rather long, slender, decurved. Sepals linear-oblong, acute, tomentose. Petals much larger, recurved. Capsules terminal, 3-valved, ¾–1 inch in diameter, depressed, broader than long, glabrous, even when half-grown, valves hard and woody, dark-brown, very finely wrinkled and pitted.

I have named this fine species after Captain Fairchild, of the s.s. Stella, through whose kindness I was enabled to land on the islands. It is allied to P. crassifolium and P. umbellatum. From the first it differs in the broader flat leaves, which are quite glabrous when mature, and in the capsule, which is smaller and much broader and flatter, besides being glabrous when comparatively young. From P. umbellatum it can at once be distinguished by the silky tomentose young leaves and branchlets, less numerous flowers, and by the much larger differently-shaped capsule.


2. Coprosma macrocarpa, n. sp.

A robust, leafy, glossy-green shrub, 5–12 feet in height, quite glabrous in all its parts; bark dark greyish-brown. Leaves coriaceous, but hardly so much so as in C. robusta, large, 4–7 inches long, 1½–3½ inches broad, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, acute or apiculate, rather suddenly narrowed into a short stout petiole, margins thickened veins conspicuous, very finely reticulated. Stipules large, on the young leafy shoots often sheathing the branch for some distance. Flowers not seen. Fruit much the largest of the genus, very abundantly produced, in axillary fascicles of 3–7, ½–1 inch or sometimes ovoid or orbicular, nearly long, broadly oblong, not seen perfectly ripe.

A very distinct plant, at once recognised by the large fruit, which is more than twice the size of that of C. grandifolia or C. robusta which are its nearest allies. The leaves are often as