Bbown. — On Neiu Zealand Musci. 531 



V. viacroura, Hook, f., ex Benth., in DC. Prodr., x., 459. 



In old specimens the branchlets and racemes are more or 

 less pendulous, and the pedicels of the densely-crowded cap- 

 sules curved upwards. 



This littoral species has not been observed either at 

 Whangarei or on the shores of Cook Strait of late years. It 

 is, however, plentiful on many parts of the East Coast from 

 Hicks Bay to the Mahia Peninsula. The Tarndale locality 

 (Nelson), recorded in the Handbook on the strength of speci- 

 mens found amongst Tarndale plants in Sinclair's herbarium, 

 is certainly erroneous, as this species is only found in the 

 vicinity of the sea. V. coohiana, Colenso, in Trans. N.Z. 

 Inst., XX. (1887), 201, from Table Cape, seems to me a 

 variety %vith broader more or less pubescent leaves and 

 longer racemes. V. macroura was originally discovered by 

 the Eev. W. Colenso at Whangarei, the East Cape, and Cook 

 Strait. 



F. dieffenbachii, Benth., in DC. Prodr., x., 459. 



The rather stout branches of this plant are given off in a 

 divaricating manner, so that a single specimen may cover an 

 area many yards in diameter. The stem and leaves are 

 sometimes pubescent. 



V. speciosa, R. Cunn., in Bot. Mag., sub-t. 3461. 



I am informed that this fine plant has been destroyed in 

 its old habitat at the south head of Hokianga Harbour, but 

 believe that it still exists a few miles further south. On the 

 authority of the late Dr. Lyall it is stated to have been found 

 near Port Nicholson, but no other botanist has seen it in this 

 locality. Mr. J. Eutland assures me that it is still to be 

 found on maritime rocks in Titirangi Bay, Marlborough, 

 where it is often drenched with sea-spray. 



Aet. LIII. — Neio Zealand Musci : Notes on a New Genus. 



By RoBEKT Bkown. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd July, 1S95.] 



For a considerable number of years I have been practically 

 interested in the New Zealand Musci, and have travelled 

 over a large portion of New Zealand, and been successful in 

 discovering a great number of different species of mosses at 

 present unknown to science. I am now busily occupied in 



