NEW PLANT DISCOVERED.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 24 January 1925, Page 16

NEW PLANT DISCOVERED.

SPECIMENS COLLECTED' BY MUSEUM OFFICERS Among the receut acquisitions to the herbarium of the Dominion Mweum are specimens of a new species of plant irom the Poor Knight islands (says the Evening Post). The plant ,was collected by Messrs. \V. 11. B. Oliver and H. Hamilton, members of the Dominion Museum Expedition which recently visited so, me of the island groups to- the north of Auckland. The existence of a peculiar species of plant was previously known to Mr W. M. Fraser, Whangarei Harbour Engineer, who joined the expedition during its stay on the Poor Knights, but no specimens seem to have been brought to the mainland before the Museum officers visited the group, _ and hence the name and relationships' of the plant remained unknown. The plant grows only on cl ills in the highest parts of the islands, where it forms tussocks as large as a moderatesized flax plant. The leaves are s-word-shaped, like those of the garden iris, but the flowers are of an altogether different type, occurring in bru-h-like spikes from 6 inches to ;v foot in length. They are bright red in colour, the conspicuous portion being the stamens, as in the Australian “bottle-brush 3 ’ tree, to which the flower heads of the new plant hemsome resemblance. The item is new to science, but belongs to the genus Xeronema, hitherto known only by a species from the mountains of New Caledonia. The Poor Knights species is, however, much larger than its New' Caledonian relative.

One naturally asks what is the explanation of two allied species being found in such distant localities as the Poor Knights and New Caledonia. No definite answer can he given. Xeronema is not alone in having this peculiar distribution lor other plants, such as the puka, kauri, and karaka have similar relationships, and there are a great many plants and birds in New Zealand that are allied to. Malayan forms. Probably in some distant geological oeriod when, ./dry’ land extended along the submarine bank, which is known to stretch from New Zealand to New Caledonia, the distribution of Xeronema was continuous between the two uoints where it is now found; It would be the same with i the nuka, kauri, karaka. and many others. The discovery of Xeronema on. the Poor Knights thus strengthens the belief held by many biologists and geologists, that New Zealand was at one time connected by land with the Mrlavan region.