The Daphne.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20331, 14 June 1934, Page 8

The Daphne.

Nature Notes

By

James Drummond,

F.L.S., F.Z.S.

\yiTII A REMARK that “we have ouite a lot of it here," a correspondent at Orua Bay, Manakau Harbour, sent flowers of a native Daphne, in honour of the nymph whom Apollo loved, and who. to escape him. was metamorphosed by her mother into the laurel tree. The species admired by the Orua Bay correspondent bears white, silky, fragrant flowers. It is almost confined to sanddunes and to sandy coasts, but its ranr’e is from North Cape to Foveaux Strait. It is a small herb with soft, silvery-white hairs on the young branches and on the imder surface of the leaves. Sir Joseph Banks and Dr Solander discovered the species when, in spring months ICO years ago, thev walked along the sandy shore at Tolaga Bay, near East Cape, and eagerly gathered flowers they found in bewildering profusion. They collected further specimens of this Daphne at Mercury Bay. Fifty-seven years passed without any botanist paying attention to it. and then it was collected at the entrance to Ilokianga River bv Allan Cunningham, a devoted Australian botanist, superintendent of the Sydney Botanical Gardens, lie visited New Zealand twice, adding to a knowledge of this country's plant-life. His admirers claim that he was one of the most remarkable men in the ranks of plant-collectors. The species mentioned is Pimelia arenaria, the Pimelia of the sands. Banks and Solander, at the ssme time, gathered a handsomer and more attractive species, Pimelia longifolia, the long-leaved Pimelia. plentiful in parts of the North Island, and present in the Colling wood. Westport and Charleston districts. Pimelia is a euphonicus name for pretty wild flowers, but it simply means fatness, referring to oily seeds these plants produce.