Ma. W. MITTEN ON NEW SPECIES OF METZGEEIA. 241 



Plate XIV. ' 



Blyxa radicans, Ridley, n. sp. 



Fig. 1. Female plant, of nat. size. 



2. Female flower, enlarged. 



3. Male spathe, enlarged. 



4. Male flower, laid open and enlarged. 



5. A stamen, enlarged, 



6. Pollen-grains, enlarged. 



Some new Species of the. G-enus Metzgeria. 



Bj W. MittIIn, A.L.S. 



[Read 6th May, 1886.] 



Since the publication of the monograph of tliis genus by Dr. 

 Lindberg in 1877, when he distinctly separated ten species, and 

 for the time exhausted the subject, eight species have been added 

 by Dr. Spruce in his ' Hepaticse Amazonica? et Andina*/ seven of 

 these being from the regions he had visited and one from New 

 Zealand. All these species are, excepting the difference in rami- 

 fication and the degree of their pubescence, very uniform in their 

 appearance, and coincide very nearly with the common M.furcata, 

 which might thus well be considered tlie ty[)ical and representa- 

 tive species. The discovery, however, of a few stems recently 

 sent from New Zealand by Mr. Eeader, has revealed a form which 

 could hardly have been anticipated, and thus leads to the conclu- 

 sion that other modifications will in time be discovered which 

 must change the idea of the genus, and may alter its place in 

 arrangements. 



Metzgeria saccata, sp. n. ; frons dichotome divisus, supra 



convexulus, Isevis marginibus ubique lobis alternatim dispositis 



saccatis patenti-ascendentibus compressulis ad ventrem frondis 

 incurvis. 



Hal. New Zealand, on bark, with a Frullama and several 

 mosses, a very few stems only ; Tasmania, forests between the 

 Gordon and Franklin rivers ; M^Quarie Harbour, 1846, Dr. Mil- 

 ligariy a fragment. 



The specimens of this species are as yet too scanty to give an 

 idea of what may be its usual state, but they are enough to show 

 its complete departure, in the presence of the saccate lobules from 



