Amarantaceae.

Alternanthera denticulata R. Br. The species was first recorded from New Zealand by A. Cunningham (1838, p. 456, No. 367), who stated: “A procumbent plant, growing in bogs and open marshy grounds. Bay of Islands.—1834, R. Cunningham.” Hooker (1854, p. 212, and 1864, p. 234) and Cheeseman (1906, p. 577, and 1925, p. 413) accepted the nativity of the species without question, but Allan (1937, p. 30) expresses a doubt, noting: “Its occurrences in the field rather suggest that it is introduced only.” The first

occurrence of the plant was at the Bay of Islands, a locality where colonization had been carried out for some years prior to 1834, and the species could very feasibly have been introduced from Australia, perhaps with some of Samuel Marsden's importations of plants or animals. The subsequent spread of the plant, it must also be noted, has been to localities where it could have been carried by the early settlers, and later by commercial activities. Cheeseman (1925, p. 234) gives the distribution as from the North Cape to Rotorua and Hawke's Bay, rare and local south of Auckland; it has been found along the railway line at Feilding (Nos. 18518, 33643, 33659) and Featherston (V. D. Zotov, No. 51230), indicating that it has been dispersed by means of the railways. Recently, I found the species well established over a stony flat at Birdling's Flat, near the mouth of Lake Forsyth, Canterbury (Nos. 51020, 51021, 51022), definitely in the role of a naturalized plant. It would seem that it came into this latter locality in recent years only, since it was not recorded by Laing (1919, pp. 355–498), nor was it represented in Kirk's collection from that locality.

Having regard to the original locus and subsequent spread, I suggest that this species be removed from the indigenous flora and placed in the naturalized flora.