forest situated in the Wairoa River flats, about half a mile from the river's western bank: it is now reserved, and appears to be the remnant of a larger area.

Pittosporum obcordatum appears to be exclusively a swamp plant, as it has never been found in a hilly or dry locality. The trees with which it is associated in the Wairoa habitat consist principally of Podocarpus dacrydioides and Hoheria populnea var. angustifolia; whilst the undergrowth, which is all of a twiggy, divaricating type, includes Coprosma propinqua and C. rigida, Myrsine divaricata, Myrtus obcordata, Melicytus micranthus, and Melicope simplex. The resemblance to Myrsine divaricata is extraordinarily close, and the two shrubs, when neither in flower nor fruit, are indistinguishable at a distance of a few paces.

Pittosporum obcordatum bears a heavy crop of flowers and seed-capsules, and its appearance is then sufficiently striking to prevent it being overlooked by any ordinarily careful observer. The fragrant flowers are of a light-saffron colour, and are often edged on both sides of the petals, at the junction of the claw and the limb, with a narrow reddish line. The shrub attains a height of about 9 ft. Mr. Cheeseman, who kindly identified the Wairoa plant for me, informs me that it differs from the Kaitaia plant in its smaller leaves and less dense pubescence on young leaves, calyces, and ovaries. I have found that the seeds germinate quickly and freely, the seedling plant appearing above ground about eight weeks after planting. The seed-leaves are three in number, rarely four, and are oblong-lanceolate in shape. The succeeding leaves have a very curious appearance, being from ½ in. to 1 in. long, in shape narrow-linear with a broad decurrent base, and with the tips slightly widened out into three more or less regular lobes. The upper surface of some of the earliest leaves appears to be covered with colourless cells which give the leaf a shining scaly appearance. My seedlings of last spring's planting are now some 6 in. high, and have produced only the linear type of leaf, which gives to the plant a very striking and characteristic look. Some of the mature shrubs bear reversion shoots on the lower branches, which show leaves intermediate in form between the linear and adult leaves. Mr. H. B. Matthews, who has raised plants from Kaitaia seed, informs me that the seed-leaves are four in number, and that the linear leaves are not produced. We have no information as to the shape of the juvenile leaves of the Akaroa plant.

The other species of the genus Pittosporum found by me in the Wairoa district are P. tenuifolium, P. eugenioides, P. Ralphii, and P. cornifolium, whilst P. rigidum has also been reported by the late Mr. Colenso. This list is probably not exhaustive. As all attempts to rediscover the plant at Akaroa have failed, Kaitaia and Wairoa remain at present the only known habitats. The portion of swampy forest mentioned above as its habitat in Wairoa contains, so far as I know, the only similar association of divaricating shrubs in the district. Other portions of swampy bush bearing a superficial resemblance to it have been visited by me, but a careful search has failed to reveal the plant under notice, or, indeed, the majority of those of divaricating habit with which it is associated. In view of the facts that the plant is fairly plentiful in the small portion of bush in which it was found, that it seeds profusely, and that the seeds germinate freely, it is somewhat surprising that it appears to be confined to the one locality. The explanation may be that in such a situation the seeds could only be distributed by birds, and that they are not relished by them.