COLENSO. — On New Phcsnogamic Plants. 463 



of H. de];)ressa (it being also an Australian plant), says, " Leaves 

 small, entire or slightly toothed, .... scabrous with 

 minute asperities; .... fruit with 4 or 8 prominent 

 nerves." And, again, " There are two forms of this species : 

 1. scrpTjllifolia. Leaves mostly under 3 lines long and rather 

 narrow. Goniocarims serinjllifolhis and G. vernicosus, Hook, f., 

 in Hook. ' Ic. Plantarum,' it. 290 and 311. And, 2. montanx. 

 Leaves broader, often cordate, 3 to 5 lines long." I have the 

 drawings, with dissections, of both those species (or forms), 

 which diiier largely from this plant here described ; besides, I 

 know H. depressa. 



Order XXVIII. Myrtace.!^. 

 Genus 2. Metrosideros, Br. 



1. M. sijeciosa, sp. nov. 



" A small tree, bushy at top, about 25ft.-30ft. high; pro- 

 bably a climber " [Mr. Hamilton] ; wholly glabrous. Branch- 

 lets sub-4-angled, bark dark reddish-brown. Leaves oblong 

 and oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, lin.-lfin. long (attaining to 

 2iin. on young luxuriant barren lateral shoots), decussate, 

 distant ^in.-fin., spreading, petiolate, dark-green alike on both 

 sides, plentifully dotted with large and small dots, glossy on 

 upper surface, midrib stout, much veined, lateral nerves 

 oblique, irregular ; petioles 1-2 lines long. Flowers stout, 

 large, in small terminal and sub-terminal corymbs (sub 11- 

 flowered) ; peduncles (and pedicels) rugulose and dark- 

 coloured, slender, fin.-lin. long, with 3-4 minute transverse 

 ridgy equidistant bracteoles, and also 1 at base of pedicel ; 

 secondary peduncles 3 lines long ; pedicels very short ; flowers 

 disposed in heads of 3, and when terminal of 5. Calyx infun- 

 dibuliform, smooth, thick, 8 lines long ; lobes large, broad, 

 rounded, concave, persistent ; margins membranaceous and 

 dotted. Petals 5, large, sub-orbicular, showy, 3 lines dia- 

 meter, orange with a reddish (or pink) tinge, veined, thickly 

 dotted with large dots ; margins entire at tips, slightly erose 

 at sides ; claw broad, short. Stamens (and style) dark-red, 8 

 (rarely 9) lines long, flat, thin ; anthers oblong, red ; pollen 

 (plentiful) bright-yellow (gamboge) ; style stout, erect, lin. 

 long, much longer than stamens. Fruit not seen. 



Hah. Forest-clearing, 1 mile north of the Waikanae Eail- 

 way-station (Manaw^atu line) ; April, 1889: Mr. A.Hamilton. 



Obs. This species is pretty closely allied to M. florida, Sm., 

 but differing in several particulars — viz., in general colours of 

 bark, leaves, and inflorescence, which are all much darker ; in 

 its angled branchlets, in the position form and venation of its 

 leaves, in its smaller heads of flowers with their larger and 

 more vividly-coloured petals stamens and styles, in its longer 



