270 Transactions. — Botany. 



it should be placed in the tribe Boragecs, next to Eritrichium, 

 Schrad. ; but its abundant albumen separates it sharply from 

 the genera of this tribe, which are all ex-albuminous. I have 

 a very slight acquaintance with this natural order, which is 

 represented in New Zealand only by Myosotis, ~Lmn.,Exarrhena, 

 Br., and Myosotidium, Hook., in addition to the genus here 

 described, and I shall therefore offer no opinion as to its posi- 

 tion in the order. Mr. Brown informs me that my plant is 

 identical with Tillcea hamiltonii, T. Kirk, noticed in a paper 

 by Mr. W. S. Hamilton in volume xvii., page 292, of the 

 Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, specimens of 

 which Mr. T. Kirk, F.L.S., had sent to the Kew Herbarium. 

 Mr. Kirk's specimens were very imperfect ; otherwise I 

 should not have had the opportunity of bringing this in- 

 teresting new genus under your notice. To avoid useless 

 synonymy I have retained the specific name proposed by 

 Mr. Kirk. 



Tillcea novce-zelandice, sp. nov. 



A short, slender, matted species, with the stems erect and 

 lin. long, or prostrate and rooting when they reach a 

 length of 2in. or more. Leaves linear, acute, opposite, 

 connate at the base. Flowers axillary, solitary, small, 

 shortly peduncled, 4-merous. Sepals coherent at the base. 

 Petals ovate, acute, longer than the calyx. Stamens alter- 

 nate with the petals. Scales linear, thin, flat. Style long, 

 reflexed. Seeds, two or three in each carpel. 



Hab. Waipahi, Lake Waihola, Lake Te Anau. 



The specimens from Waipahi are taken as the type. 

 Those from Lake Waihola are more robust and creeping. 

 The Te Anau ones are very slender, and have fewer, shorter, 

 and narrower leaves. Mr. N. E. Brown, A.L.S., of Kew, 

 informs me that he cannot detect scales in the specimens I 

 forwarded to the Royal Herbarium ; but they are constantly 

 present, and can be readily found in the bud and in newly- 

 opened flowers. They are not so easy to detect in older, and 

 especially in dried, flowers, in which they may be readily over- 

 looked or mistaken for parts of the filaments. In some re- 

 spects the present species resembles Tillcea debilis, Colenso, 

 but the scales and the much longer petals readily distinguish 

 it from that species. It is not so slender or densely matted 

 as Tillcea sinclairii, Hook. f. 



Azorclla nitens, sp. nov. 



A small, creeping, matted, glossy-green plant, the scapes 

 and petioles usually buried in the soil for quite half their 

 length. Leaves broadly-cuneate in outline ; usually three- 

 partite to the base, rarely shortly three-lobed ; the segments 



