98 Transactions. — Botany. 



hairs on each prominent angle (this hairy hne is decur- 

 rent from the outer angle of base of each cauline bract, 

 8 lines in all) . Bracts on scape : the two lower pairs 

 diphyllous, opposite, sub-sessile, thickish, much and reti- 

 culately veined ; the lowest pair narrow oblong, 2in. long, 

 7 lines wide, sides straight, deeply crenate, acute, without 

 flowers ; the next pair smaller, with 3 flowers : the upper 

 bracts in whorls (6 in number), all quadriphyllous, sessile, 

 oblong-lanceolate, lin. long (the uppermost fin.), 3-nerved ; 

 tip obtuse knobbed ; margins serrate, purple, their lower half 

 thickly ciliate ; ciliae flat, wavy ; each whorl bearing four 

 flowers ; all the wdiorls nearly equidistant, about l^in. apart. 

 Pedicels — the lower 3in., the upper l^in. long, angled, stout and 

 rigid below at bases, slender filiform and drooping at tips, each 

 with a single line of weak hairs. Calyx glabrous, 5 lines long, 

 very rugose and wrinkled at base, 5-partite, lobes oblong, 

 sparsely ciliate at their bases, 3-nerved below, only the central 

 nerve percurrent, much reticulated between the outer veins 

 and margins, the inner interstices clear ; margins 2-denticulate, 

 teeth obtuse and, with the tip, knobbed and coloured. 

 Corolla pure-white, lin. diameter, largely and dichotomously 

 veined, the two upper lobes much shorter, broader, and 

 rounder at tips ; tube short, sub 1^ lines long, half the length 

 of tube, stout, broad ; throat densely lined with lemon- 

 coloured, jointed, and sub-acute hairs. Anthers large, sub- 

 orbicular-reniform. Fruit sub -orbicular, turgid, sub 2 lines 

 long, scarcely half as long as calyx-lobes which enclose it, 

 with a beak and very long persistent flexuous style. 



Hab. Highlands on River Waimakariri, near Bealey, South 

 Island; 1888. 



Obs. I have only seen one specimen of this plant, but in a 

 good flowering state and fresh ; gathered there by a visitor 

 and sent to Napier ; its lower stem was wanting, and basal 

 leaves imperfect. 



Order LXIII.— POLYGONE^. 



Genus 2. Muhlenbeckia, Meisn. 



1. M. hypogaa, sp. nov. 



A small prostrate twiggy shrub, extending a few inches (?) 

 each way ; much branched ; main stems and branches being 

 underneath the soil, and rooting at nodes, 4in.-5in. long, 

 flexuous and very slender, ^ line diameter, with only the tips 

 of the smaller ultimate branchlets appearing above, and then 

 also prostrate and closely appressed ; bark dark red-brown, 

 epidermis thin sub-bladdery ; branchlets numerous, very short 

 and intermixed, the younger ones striate and minutely papil- 

 lose. Leaves few, scattered, orbicular, jijin.-Jjiu. wide (fre- 



