302 Transactions. — Botany. 



denticulatam excedente. Folia perichsetialia interiora parva, 

 ovato-lanceolata nervosa, brevius aristata, profunde plicata, 

 hyalina, cellulis rectangulis laevibus reticulata. Seta vix 

 uncialis adscendens rubens apice inclinata. Theca junior 

 sphaerica, deinde nutans, oblonga, sicca paulisper striata ; oper- 

 culo breve conico obtuso. Peristomiuni inflexum parvulum 

 sanguineum, dentibus exter. anguste lanceolatis acuminatis 

 dense trabeculatis ; intern, cruribus ovato-acuminatis, ciliis 

 brevissimis. 



"Mount Grampians; leg. W. Sullivan. 



" Syn. Bartramia affinis, Schwaeg., tab. 237, mala; nee 

 Hooker, tab. 176. In Tasmania, in montosis versus lacum 

 Pedder, 1875, legit Schuster formam minorem vix biuncia- 

 lem."— " Linnsea," 1876, p. 307. 



Nearly allied to B. affinis. Mitten, in " Australian 

 Mosses," p. 21, considers it a distinct species. Westland, 

 in " Herb. Helms," No. 68. 



Art. XXXVIII. — On a Neiv Insectivorous Plant in New 



Zealand. 



By Sir Walter L. Buller, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. 



[Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 7th December, 1892.] 



As is probably well known to all present, we possess in New 

 Zealand several species of Drosera, a group of plants which 

 not only catch insects by means of their tentacles and the 

 viscid matter secreted from their glands, but which, as Darwin 

 has conclusively shown, have likewise the power of dissolving 

 animal matter by the aid of this secretion, which contains an 

 acid, together with a ferment almost identical in nature with 

 pepsin, the matter thus digested being afterwards absorbed into 

 the system of the plant as a means of nourishment. Darwin 

 has fully described other insect-catching plants — Drosoplujllum, 

 Boridula, and Byblis effecting the capture by means of their 

 viscid secretion alone, and Dioncea and Aldrovanda through 

 the rapid closing of their leaves. All these carnivorous plants 

 belong to a recognised family known as the Droseracea, com- 

 prising six well-determined genera. 



The New Zealand plant which I desire to bring under your 

 notice to-night is something entirely different. It is a species 

 of fungus belonging to tbe genus Aseroe, described thus in 

 Hooker's Handbook (vol. ii., p. 616) : "A curious genus, the 

 arms of whose pileus somewhat resemble a starfish. Found 

 in New Zealand, Ceylon, and Australia. Volva globose, gela- 



