CoLENso. — On Neiv Phcenogams. 607 



adpressed to stem. Flowers subterminal and subcorymbose, 

 racemes axillary, slender, a little longer than leaves ; peduncles 

 very slender, -J-in. long, bracteate, usually 4 pairs of bracts 

 (sometimes binate, and also ternate), pedicels short, stout; 

 bracteoles as long as sepals, thin ; the two bracts of lowest 

 pair of pedicels (also subpeduncles) nearly twice as long as 

 bracteoles. Flowers white ; sepals narrow sub-ovate-acumi- 

 nate, 1^ lines long, thin ; corolla 3 lines diameter, spreading, 

 4-lobed, lobes nearly alike narrow ovate-acuminate, tips in- 

 curved (sometimes rarely 3- and o-merous), the lower lobe the 

 smallest ; tube sub 1 line long, wide, throat naked ; style very 

 long, more than twice as long as calyx ; capsule broadly ovate- 

 elliptic ; seeds lew, thin, flatfish, rather irregularly shaped, 

 suborbicular, broadly elliptic, and obovate, pale-brown, gla- 

 brous. 



Hah. At Kuripapango, on the Eiver Ngaruroro, in the 

 hilly interior. County of Hawke's Bay : Mr. H. Hill; 1894. 



Obs. I. A very graceful flowering-shrub, its flowers pre- 

 senting a peculiar neat and striking star-like appearance. It 

 will range naturally near to V. colensoi, Hook., and V. dar- 

 tviniana, Col. (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxv., p. 331). In drying, 

 the leaves lose much of their dark-green colour above, aiad 

 become glaucescent. 



II. Mr. Hill brought away living plants, which have done 

 well in his garden at Napier. 



2. V. olsenii, sp. nov. 



A small neat prostrate shrub with short procumbent 

 branches, rooting at nodes ; branches slender, thickly pubes- 

 cent, hairs short, patent ; bark dark-red. Leaves rather 

 close, opposite, subsecund, sub-rhombic -orbicular, 4 lines 

 diameter, deeply cut, serrate, 3 teeth on the side (some- 

 times only 2), tip obtuse and subacute, glabrous, dark-green, 

 thickish ; petiole 1 line long, stout, canaliculate, glabrous, 

 edges pink. Flowers in slender erect axillary opposite 

 peduncles 4iu.-5in. high, the lower half (or more) naked, finely 

 and closely pubescent (as also pedicels) ; flowers 15-20, 

 alternate, rather distant, patent ; pedicels 4-5 lines long, 

 very slender, with a single sessile bract at the base (in one 

 specimen 3 together subfascicled, w'ith 3 bracts), bracts ovate 

 obtuse J^in. long, the lowest pair 2 lines long (rather large 

 for so small a plant), glabrous, margined, margin ciliolate. 

 Sepals large, rhombic - ovate, obtuse, glabrous, thick, the 

 apical portion of margins glandular-ciliolate. Corolla small, 

 sub 3 lines long ; tube very short ; lobes 4, 3 of them orbi- 

 cular, 1 (the lower) oblong, tip rounded entire, conniving, 

 white with a pink throat and a few faint pinkish dashes. 

 Stamens inclosed, shorter than lobes; anthers cordate obtuse; 



