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Introduction.
Celmisia Sinclairii was first described in the Handbook of the Flora of New Zealand by Sir J. D. Hooker, the diagnosis being based on material collected and forwarded to Kew by Dr. Andrew Sinclair. This material consisted of three plants gathered in two widely separated localities—Tarndale, in the North-western Botanical District of Cockayne, and Dun Mt., in the Sounds-Nelson Botanical District. Notwithstanding some obvious differences in the characters of the plants forwarded, Hooker regarded them as two forms of the same species, mounted them on the same herbarium sheet, and described them conjointly under the name of Celmisia Sinclairii.
The absence from the Dominion not only of Hooker's type specimens, but of authentic co-types or paratypes of Celmisia Sinclairii and other allied species of Celmisia, notably of C. incana and of C. discolor, has been responsible for the prevalence of some confusion among field workers in New Zealand, more particularly because of the protean character of the genus.
In the case of Celmisia Sinclairii and allied forms New Zealand botanists have never been sure of their identifications mainly for the following reasons:—
| (1) |
As indicated above, no co-type or paratype material has been available for reference in the Dominion. |
| (2) |
Until recently no plants matching Hooker's Tarndale specimens had been discovered, or at any rate recognised as such, by any Dominion botanist since Sinclair, and none existed in any New Zealand herbarium. |
| (3) |
No recent field-worker has been able on Dun Mt. to find any plants matching or attributable to the Kew specimens of C. Sinclairii described by Hooker from that locality. The fact that plants from Dun Mt. labelled Celmisia Sinclairii in the handwriting of the late T. Kirk are preserved in the herbarium of the Dominion Museum has not hitherto been known. |
| (4) |
Plants closely matching the Dun Mt. material at Kew have been obtained elsewhere both in the Sounds-Nelson and in the North-western Botanical Districts, but hitherto this fact was not certainly known to the collectors. |
| (5) |
There exist on the mountains of the South Island of New Zealand several allied species comprising numerous jordanons, some of which answer to Hooker's description of Celmisia Sinclairii as set out in the Manual. |
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Now, although it has long been known that two distinct, forms existed in Hooker's type material, if, indeed, it can be so designated at all, nothing has been known as to their status. The solution of the problem as to whether they were in reality individuals of the same jordanon, or whether they represented two distinct jordanons either of the same or of an allied species demanded their re-discovery in the field, a task that happily has now been accomplished.