482 Transactions. — Botany. 



ties rounded ; tip produced, apiculate. Style much exserted, 

 thickened upwards, coarsely hairy. 



Hab. On a small islet lying near the shore between Gable- 

 end Foreland and Tolaga Bay ; 1889 : Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. This plant differs considerably from our other known 

 New Zealand species. Its nearest ally seems to be P. brmonii, 

 Eapin ; but on closely comparing it with the drawings and ample 

 dissections of that species as given by Sir J. D. Hooker in his 

 "Flora Antarctica," vol. i., tab. 43, it is found to possess 

 several grave differential characters — e.g., in its leaves being 

 thinner and much more veined, and bearing tufts of jointed 

 hairs on their upper surfaces, and very hairy at their bases ; 

 in the larger number of flow^ers in its spikes ; in its bract and 

 calyx-lobes having wide membranous white borders, with 

 ciliated margins ; in the long hairs between the bract and 

 calyx; in the lobes of the corolla being broader, flat, and 

 obtuse ; in its anthers being of a different shape — the tip more 

 acuminate, and their basal extremities broadly rounded, not 

 acutely pointed. 



Order LXIII. Polygone.e. 

 Genus 2. Muhlenbeckia, Meisn. 



1. M. muricatula, sp. nov. 



A small low prostrate wir}- undershrub. Branches im- 

 plexed, long, very slender, striate, roughish ; bark dark-brown; 

 branchlets few, almost filiform, alternate, striate, sub-angular, 

 finely and thickly muricated. Leaves few, alternate, scattered, 

 4-5 lines distant, linear, 4-5 lines long, ^^0""^- broad (some- 

 times smaller), thickish, no veins visible, dull darkish-green, 

 shining, tips sub-acute, margins entire ; midrib stoutish below ; 

 petioles tapering insensibly, thickish, sulcated, minutely muri- 

 cated, and so midrib below ; stipules large, brown, scarious, 

 truncate, veins conspicuous. Flowers hermaphrodite, axillary, 

 2 together, sub 8-10 pairs, alternate, distant 3-4 lines apart 

 in a terminal leafy raceme, their leaves small and decreasing 

 in size to tip, sometimes without leaves and only stipules, 

 which are large and bladdery, the middle vein of the outer 

 one stout, aristate. Perianth white, li lines diameter, 5- 

 lobed, lobes oblong, 1-nerved, tijis obtuse ; peduncle 1 line 

 long, white as perianth ; style o-branched, stigmas thick, 

 each 3-branched. Anthers broadly elliptic, nearly sub-orbicu- 

 lar. Nut black, half exserted, 1^ lines long, smooth, shining, 

 broadly ovoid-lanceolate, triquetrous, angles obtuse ; the peri- 

 anth-lobes persistent, membranous. 



Hab. Summit of Mount Euapehu, and within the old 

 crater, on drv stony spots. County of East Taupo ; 1889 : 

 Mr. H. Hill. " 



