Title: Early New Zealand Botanical Art

Author: F. Bruce Sampson

Publication details: Reed Methuen, 1985, Auckland

Digital publication kindly authorised by: F. Bruce Sampson

Part of: New Zealand Texts Collection

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Early New Zealand Botanical Art

[untitled]

Plate 27 Celmisia walkeri (an alpine daisy)

John Buchanan made this drawing and lithograph for a paper by Thomas Kirk, in which this alpine daisy is described for the first time {Transactions of the New Zealand Institute vol. 9, 1876). Celmisia is one of the largest genera of native plants, with some sixty New Zealand species. Celmisia walkeri was named after Captain J. Campbell Walker, who was with Kirk on the dividing range above Lake Harris, Otago, when he discovered the plant. It is restricted to rocky alpine regions and fellfields (900 to 1,600 metres altitude) of the South Island, mainly to the west of the main divide, in regions of high rainfall from southern Nelson to Fiordland. The illustration does not show the complete plant, which is a sparingly branched, sprawling shrub with slightly sticky leaves that are green above and white below because of the presence of soft woolly hairs. The centre of the "flower" is yellow and the surrounding petals are white. Another South Island alpine daisy is illustrated in Plate 46.

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Plate 27 Celmisia walkeri Kirk John Buchanan

Plate 27 Celmisia walkeri Kirk John Buchanan

Plate 28 Sicyos angulata (mawhai)

This is probably the best of Mrs Featon's paintings for the unpublished volumes of the Art Album. In this instance the painting is on a grey background. Many of the chromolithographs in volume one, although possessing a grey background, lack this in the original watercolours (for example, plates 14 and 24). Mawhai, a member of the family Cucurbitaceae, which includes the gourds and pumpkin, is a climbing plant. It climbs by means of tendrils at the bases of the leaf stalks and occurs in coastal scrub north of latitude 37° S, especially on the islands of the Hauraki Gulf. This species is also widespread in the tropics. Mawhai has separate male and female flowers on the same plant.

Courtesy of the Director, National Museum, Wellington

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Plate 28 Sicyos angulata L. (mawhai) Sarah Featon

Plate 28 Sicyos angulata L. (mawhai) Sarah Featon