Transactions Of The New Zealand Institute, 1913.

Art. I.—Contributions to a Fuller Knowledge of the Flora of New Zealand: No. 5. By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S., F.Z.S., Curator of the Auckland Museum. [Read before the Auckland Institute, 3rd December, 1913.] I. Ranunculaceae. Clematis indivisa Willd. In the Students' Flora Mr. T. Kirk constituted three varieties of this plant, describing them as follows: “Var. b, lobulata, leaflets toothed or lobulate, flowers smaller; var. c, decomposita, leaflets 2-ternate; var. d, linearis, leaflets narrow-linear, 3–7 in. long, ¼ ½ in. broad, entire or with two lateral lobes at the base.” For many years I have been convinced that these three forms are nothing more than juvenile states of C. indivisa, and I am now able to offer satisfactory proof of this. In August, 1912, Mr. H. B. Morton gave me a number of young seedlings of C. indivisa, varying in height from 4 in. to 8 in. They all had narrow-linear leaves 3 in. to 4 in. long, closely resembling the leaves of very young plants of Parsonsia, heterophylla. They were planted in richly manured soil at the foot of a tall trellis, and made very rapid growth. The simple linear leaves soon gave place to trifoliolate leaves with linear leaflets, which in their turn were followed by others in which the leaflets were broader and much cut and lobed, in a few instances being twice ternate. By August, 1913, or within twelve months, some of the stems had reached the height of 12 ft., and produced flowers abundantly. In the meantime the upper leaves had assumed the ordinary shape of the adult—that is, with ovate-oblong entire or slightly toothed leaflets. At the present time (November, 1913) almost all traces of the early leaves have been lost. At the same time, as several observers, including myself, have seen flowering specimens with lobulate leaflets, it may be taken for granted that the juvenile foliage sometimes persists for a few years.