CoLEXso. — On neio Phcsiwgamic Plants. 105 



drooping at tops, finely acuminate almost setaceous, tips 

 acute, many-nerved (sub 26), margins widely membranous 

 below ; the outer leaves much shorter and not so acuminate ; 

 the basal leaves very short, blackish, acute. Spikelets 6, erect 

 and large, l^in. long, stout, cylindrical, peduncled ; the 2 

 lower very distant, the 4 upper close together, the topmost 

 narrow and wholly male ; each of the 5 lower ones with a few 

 miale iiowers at its base. Sheaths long, 2in.-l^in. from nodes, 

 closely adpressed. Stigmas 2 (sometimes 3), erect, stout. 

 Glumes light-brown, glossy, very membranous, semi-pellucid, 

 largely bifid ; lobes laciniate aristate, arista long (very long on 

 lower glumes, so as to cover the arista next above), green, 

 sharply and strongly serrate. Utricle 1^ lines long, dark 

 umber-brown, glossy, sub-rhombic-ovoid, turgid and slightly 

 uneven, minutely scabrid (5-6) on upper margins, finely 

 (almost obsoletely) striate ; beak bifid, short, broad. 



Hab. Low swampy ground, margins of woods, south of 

 Dannevirke, County of Waipawa ; 1888 : V/. C. 



Order XII.— GEx\MINE^. 



Genus 2. Microlasna, Br. 



1. M. ramosissima, sp. nov. 



A large decumbent straggling and sub-ascending perennial 

 grass, rising and creeping over low slii'ubs and bushes ; dark- 

 green ; main stems as stout at base as a goose-quill, hard, 

 solid, 7ft.-8ft. long, with several short sheaths at base, much 

 branched ; branches long, slender, leafy. Culms 4ft.-5ft. long, 

 knotted ; nodes 3in.-5in. apart, with long ovate-acuminate 

 sheath-like bracts 2in.-3in. long, light-browm, nearly amplexi- 

 caul at outer base of each node, distantly leafy throughout, 

 stout, cylindrical, solid, 2 lines diameter at base ; the lower 

 leaves 8in. long, -jV^- "^"^'i^ie, linear acuminate, striate, many- 

 nerved (5 of them being stout and prominent) ; margins 

 minutely scaberulous, recurved and red ; tip long, filiform ; 

 the upper leaves reaching close under panicle, iin. long, very 

 narrow almost filiform, -gQin. wide, acute; sheaths 2in. long, 

 extending half-w'ay between nodes, rigid, striate, with a few 

 fine long hairs at the mouth ; ligule small, semi-circular, 

 somewhat chaffy, reddish, thickened. Panicle terminal, lax 

 and sub-erect, 4in.-5in. long, narrow, distantly branched with 

 4-6 simple branches, each containing 3-4 pedicelled spikelets ; 

 pedicels long, ^in.-fin., wiry, flexuous and (with rhachis) 

 minutely scaberulous. Spikelet 8 lines long awns included, pale- 

 green. Glumes, lowest pair small, persistent, w^hitish, spread- 

 ing, the outer one very minute one-third the length of the inner 

 W'hich is about 1 line long, ovate, tip retuse and jagged ; the 

 2 following empty glumes awned, unequal, the outer one 6 



