Identifier: plantsofnewzeala1906lain (find matches)
Title: Plants of New Zealand
Year: 1906 (1900s)
Authors: Laing, R. M. (Robert Malcolm), b. 1865 Blackwell, E. W. (Ellen W.)
Subjects: Plants
Publisher: Christchurch : Whitcombe and Tombs, Ltd.
Contributing Library: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden
Digitizing Sponsor: The LuEsther T Mertz Library, the New York Botanical Garden

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andiflora is entitled to specific rank.Again, a common North Island form is deciduous, andproduces in early spring, before the bursting of the leaves,dense masses of pale yellow blooms. S. microphylla goesthrough two distinct stages in its development. In the first,it is a flexuose shrub with wiry, yellowish, interlacing stems,and a few small leaves. When the plant is from eight totwelve feet in height this is gradually replaced by the matureform, which has a rounded leafy head, naked trunk, andstraight brown branches. Dr. Cockayne informs us thatneither the typical form, nor 8. grandiflora, goes through the scrubby stage, but assumes the mature leafy form atonce. The distribution of S. tetraptera outside of New Zealand isgenerally given as South Chili, Juan Fernandez, Easter Island,and Lord Howe Island. However, it may be doubted whetherone and the same species is to be found in all these widelyseparated districts. It has been shown again and again, that PEA, CLOVER, WATTLE, ETC. 213
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Fig. 65. Sophora tetraptera (j nat. size). 214 PLANTS OF NEW ZEALAND plants considered by the earliest botanists to be the same, butgrowing in habitats distant from each other, are really distinctspecies. Dr. Cockayne has clearly pioved that there are atleast three, perhaps more, distinct species of Sophora in NewZealand. The question at once arises, which of these areendemic in the Colony and which are more widely distributed ?Until the Chilian and other forms have been closely comparedwith our local plants, it is impossible to say which foreignspecies (if any) are identical with the New Zealand forms.This much, however, may be admitted. We have in thedistribution of the genus Sophora, evidence of a former closercommunication with the South American Continent. The kowhai is one of the earliest of the spring-floweringplants. The flowers are sulphur-yellow in colour, with a calyxof old gold. At the time of opening, the corolla shows mostdelicate tints of green at its base, which, howev

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