The above three plants are closely related, Celmisia walkeri, Kirk, and the present described plant, being probably only varieties of Celmisia discolor, Hook. fil. The figure on plate xv. is drawn of the natural size. Locality.—Collingwood.

Art. XXXIV.—Notes on Loranthus fieldii, Buchanan. By H. C.Field. Communicated by the President [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 6th August, 1884.] I was greatly surprised on looking over the last volume of Transactions*∗“Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” xvi., p. 397. to find that a Loranthus of which I sent a spray to Mr. Buchanan in February was new to science. It is so abundant in the region where it grows, and that region has been so constantly traversed by Europeans—several tracks from Wanganui to Taupo passing through it—that I never dreamed that the plant could have escaped observation. Those ardent botanists, Dr. Curl and the late Rev. R. Taylor, both visited the locality to my knowledge. The latter indeed did so several times, and, as he spent a Christmas at Taupo, he must apparently have traversed the forest where the plant grows just when it was in blossom. I first saw it in December, 1870, and have had so many opportunities of observing it since that date that I can describe it fully. It grows on the red birch trees, but only on the upper branches of large trees, where the bark is smooth and firmly attached to the wood. It is never seen on the trunk or large branches, which have their bark more or less rough and detaching in large flakes. I have never even seen it on young trees, though these have smooth firmly-clinging bark. I think it only grows on the red birch, as I have not observed it on the black. The level forests to the south and west of Ruapehu consist almost exclusively of red birch, the black being found growing separately, in detached patches of bush, on the eastern side of the mountain, and thence to the Ruahine. The Loranthus forms large bushes in the tops of the trees, and the blossoms are so abundant as almost to hide the foliage, so that each bush, when in flower, looks like a flame. I believe that the largest bushes are quite 10 feet in diameter, and those of 6 feet are common. I should say that fully ten per cent. of the large trees have one or more plants of Loranthus growing on them, and as the blossoms fall the whole ground is sprinkled with the petals. The root of the plant is hard and woody, and of