![Thumbnail: [Volume 31, 1898 page 363]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_31/thumbnails/rsnz_31_00_0393_0363_ac_02.gif)
Description of Seedling.
Root stout, with many fibrous strong lateral rootlets.
Hypocotyle very short, thick, green, terete.
Cotyledons increase in size after germination, from 4 mm. to 7 mm. in length, obovate or oblong, from dark to pale green, paler on under-surface, thick, fleshy, short-petioled; petioles finally 1 mm. to 2 mm. long, channelled, connate at base, slightly hairy or glabrous; sides of lamina unsymmetrical; midrib just evident on under-surface, or slightly swollen towards base of leaf.
![Thumbnail: [Volume 31, 1898 page 364]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_31/thumbnails/rsnz_31_00_0394_0364_ac_02.gif)
Leaves (Plate XXX., fig. 7) distichous on edge of stem or cladode, becoming much depauperated as development proceeds, cauline, petiolate, stipulate, at first green, then variegated with light stains at base, finally brownish-purple.
1st leaf (Plate XXX., fig. 8) rotund, subrotund or obcordate, variable in size; lamina from 1 cm. × 1 cm. to 7 mm. × 6 mm., rounded or slightly cuneate at base, emarginate, ciliate with a few scattered deciduous (?) hairs, pale-green on upper but much paler on under surface, very sparingly pilose: with a few adpressed white hairs; margin entire, often purplish; midrib reddish at base; veins evident below; petiole 7 mm. long, channelled above, terete beneath, articulated at junction with midrib, the articulation becoming more evident as development proceeds, slightly hairy, articulated at base, and furnished with two short membranous, triangular, adnate stipules, which are purple and hairy, especially at apex.
2nd leaf similar to 1st leaf, but usually rather smaller.
3rd leaf as 1st or 2nd leaf, or sometimes as 4th leaf.
4th leaf ternate with three obcordate leaflets, similar in hairiness, &c., to the previously described leaves; lateral leaflets 2.5 mm. × 2mm., often larger, articulated to midrib; terminal leaflet much larger than lateral, 6 mm. × 4.5 mm.; petiole 6 mm. long, similar to those described above.
Stem usually at first grooved and ribbed, sometimes 4-ribbed or merely angled almost glabrous, soon becoming through flattening of its surface and reduction of leaves a leafy cladode.
Leafy cladode (Plate XXX., fig. 6) dorsiventral in all the seedlings raised except one;* upper surface terete, 4mm. wide, furrowed with usually six to nine shallow furrows, dark-purple, dotted with minute white scales, canescent with short white bristly adpressed hairs in adjacent patches; ridges paler than furrows, translucent; under - surf ace flat, much less hairy than upper surface, or almost glabrous, except for dotting of minute scales, never canescent, always much grooved; margins pink, translucent, much notched; notches rounded, with pale-coloured upper margin swollen and extending as a transverse striation or swelling half across the stem on both surfaces; internodes, in plant 13.5 cm. long, 6 mm. long, 3 mm. broad at base, 4 mm. broad at notch, 2 mm. thick.
Further development: The succeeding leaves are more and more depauperated, the lateral leaflets being smaller
[Footnote] *This exceptional seedling differs chiefly in the upper surface not canescent, and in its much thinner texture; its under-surface, however, is more distinctly furrowed than the upper.
![Thumbnail: [Volume 31, 1898 page 365]](/journals/rsnz/images/rsnz_31/thumbnails/rsnz_31_00_0395_0365_ac_02.gif)
and smaller, until one, and then both, are suppressed, only a very small terminal leaflet being produced. Finally leafless cladodes are developed from the lower nodes, sometimes at first furnished with one or two minute leaflets.
Leafless cladodes flat, dorsiventral, distichous, usually curving downwards, notched at nodes, furrowed on both surfaces but more so on under-surf ace, canescent on upper surface, often stipulate on upper margin of notch.
The leafless species of Carmichœlia seem to exhibit usually three stages of development—first, a wiry (Plate XXX., fig. 9) or thick - stemmed (Plate XXX., fig, 8) seedling, with simple or compound leaves; second, leafy cladodes arising from the axils of the primary leaves; and third, quite leafless cladodes, often extremely thick and stout. The second form may be artificially produced in an adult leafless plant by cultivation in shady sheltered, moist situations (see Plate XXXI, fig. 13); such also occurs spontaneously in a state of nature, but I have not had an opportunity as yet of accurately investigating such a change. Certainly shade and its accompanying moisture is here also a factor. C. flagelliformis, on the Port Hills, is in full sunshine leafless or almost so, and in shade of trees a quite leafy plant. Compare also the permanently leafy (deciduous in winter) C. grandiflora, growing only in positions where it receives the full western rainfall, it being the common Carmichœlia of Westland, with the leafless C. robusta* of the Trelissick Basin.
Carmichælia gracilis, Armstg.† Plate XXX., figs. 1, 2. (Syn. C. kirkii, Hook. f.)
Seed collected from one plant, growing in rather swampy ground, at foot of sand-dunes near New Brighton, Canterbury. Germinated in about ten days.
[Footnote] * Of course, it must be a matter of doubt what plant was meant by Kirk as C. robusta without access to his unpublished work, and to his herbarium, lately acquired by the New Zealand Government.
[Footnote] † “Descriptions of New and Rare New Zealand Plants,” by J. B. Armstrong (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xiii., p. 336).