264 Transactions. — Botany. 



when young very pilose, and hairs there deciduous), greenish- 

 white below, and thickly covered with short adpressed hairs, 

 having longer ones scattered among them, veined, veins and 

 midrib prominent below, finely reticulated above ; midrib 

 brown ; petioles short, sub % inch, stout, channelled, balf- 

 clasping, decurrent in a ridgy line to the next leaf below ; 

 a small orbicular leaf 4-5 lines diameter usually at base of 

 brauchlets ; branchlets, petioles, midrib and young leaves 

 densely clothed with silky adpressed brown-reddish bans. 

 Inflorescence sub-terminal and axillary in long loose slender 

 corymbose-panicles, pale-coloured and hairy, 2-3 inches long, 

 three together sub-fascicled or joined close at base with connate 

 bracts at bases, each ultimate sub-panicle containing 3-4 heads 

 on slender, nodding, and bracteolate pedicels, y - i inch long. 

 Heads i inch diameter, narrow, oblong, i inch long ; involucral 

 scales laxly imbricate in sub 5 rows, outer scattered short brown 

 and very villous, inner close, long, linear, pinkish -green, glabrous 

 in the centres and densely shaggy-cihate at margins, especially 

 at tips. Flowers : of ray, 8-9, linear, oblong, tips mostly 

 emarginate, white, spreading, sub-revolute ; of disk, 6-7, yel- 

 lowish, lobes broadly-ovate, obtuse, scabrid at tips on outside. 

 Pappus white, rather short, irregular, outer shortest, not 

 thickened at tips, scabrid. Achene small, cylindrical, sub- 

 conical, obtuse, pilose. Receptacle pitted, borders large and 

 ragged. 



Hah. Hilly country in the interior, Patea, between Napier 

 and Tongariro Mountain. 



Obs. Of this plant 1 have only received one fair flowering 

 specimen, from Mr. A. Lascelles (who. however, did not gather 

 it himself) ; it is evidently a branch from a stout shrub, but some 

 allowance must be made for the leaves, which may, lower down, 

 be larger. Its alliance is with 0. nitida, Hook, fih, and with 



0. populifolia, Colenso, belonging to that sub-section, [apud 

 " Handbook N.Z. Flora,"') though largely differing from both of 

 those species. 



Order LVII. LABIATE. 

 Genus 1. Mentha, Linn. 



1. M. consimilis, sp. nov. 



A small sub-erect and prostrate fragrant herb, branches 

 2-4 inches long, finely pubescent. Leaves few, distant, opposite, 

 petioled, 1^ - 2^ lines long, sub-orbicular, and broadly ovate 

 or trowel-shaped, very obtuse at apex and truncate at base, 

 green, sometimes dark-pink below, margin (and veins) coloured 

 pinkish-brown, slightly sinuate-crenulate, generally with one 

 notch on each side near apex (sometimes tw T o), and (together 

 with bracts, calyx, and corolla) having many scattered pellucid 





