Portulacaceae.

Calandrinia caulescens H. B. K. The material assembled under this name in New Zealand herbaria consists of two distinct plants, which appear sufficiently different to belong to two species; the literature available on this genus is not adequate to determine this apparently new species. Further collections of Calandrinia from various localities are desirable, so that the distribution of the two types can be worked out.

Montia minor Gmel. Cheeseman (1883: 278) recorded a Calandrinia sp., stating: “A small white-flowered species of this genus, which I have been unable to identify, has become plentiful in stony places by the South Road near Penrose, and thence to Onehunga. (South America?).” To the present, neither this record nor the species has been cited by subsequent workers, although Cheeseman's specimens have been available. I have examined a portion of the original Penrose specimens (3452), and find that the plant does not belong to Calandrinia, but is Montia minor Gmel., a species native to Central and South Europe, Central Asia and Oregon and California, United States of America. Other specimens examined: wet places, Fairburn, North Auckland, H. Carse 3451; garden weed, Palmerston North, N. R. Foy 45931; garden weed, Upper Hutt 45932; established in arable land, Spring Creek, near Blenheim. In the field, this species has the appearance of stunted Stellaria media Linn., this fact probably explaining why the plant has been collected so infrequently.