236 Transactions. — Botany. 



Hah. Among other mosses on rotten logs ; low, damp, dark 

 woods near Norsewood, County of Waipawa, Nov., 1884: W.C. 



Obs. An interesting little crested species, apparently near 

 to H. fletricollis, Mitt, (of which S. Island species, however, I 

 have not seen any specimens, and the description given of it in 

 " Handbook N.Z. Flora " is scarcely complete). At present 

 this species is very scarce, only one small tuft containing three 

 fruiting specimens having been detected, after a most diligent 

 and renewed search. 



Order V. HEPATIC^. 

 Genus 1. Gymnomitrium, Corda. 

 1. G. orbiculata, sp. nov. 



Plant minute, erect, short, simple, sometimes with innova- 

 tions, rarely branched, 6-8 lines high, pale-green, with fine long 

 hyaline rootlets ; leaves alternate, orbicular, entire, rather distant 

 below, but sub -imbricate and larger at tips ; perichretial large 

 surrounding calyptra 5-lobed, lobes ovate-acuminate, obtuse ; 

 fruit-stalk H lines long ; capsule dark-brown ; valves spreading, 

 broadly lanceolate, much and irregularly reticulate, margins 

 white and slightly sinuate ; tips obtuse, naked. 



Hab. Sides of perpendicular wet cliffs, Eiver Mangata- 

 whainui, near Norsewood, County of Waipawa ; growing very 

 closely intermixed among Aneura mnscoides, Col. ;* October, 

 1884: W.C. 



Obs. This species in size and appearance is not unlike the 

 only other known New Zealand species, G. continuation, Cord., 

 detected by me on the summits of the Euahine mountain range, 

 its only known New Zealand habitat (but also found in Britain) ; 

 it is, however, widely different as a species. Its only known 

 habitat is a curious one ; closely bound up (or squeezed tightly ) 

 among Aneura mnscoides (infra), and only to be detected (when 

 not in fruit) by the extreme tips of its leaves just peering above 

 those of the Aneura. 



Genus 2. Jungermannia, Linn. 

 1. J. humilissima, sp. nov. 



Minute, shortly tufted, erect, 8-4 lines high, pale-green, 

 with fine long rootlets below and at base. Leaves laxly im- 

 bricate, sometimes more distant, sub-vertical, amplexicaul, 

 slightly decurrent, sub-orbicular, quite entire, apical margins 

 very slightly sinuate, recurved ; involucral similar but larger, 

 conniving ; cells minutely beaded ; apical small, orbicular, basal 

 larger, oblong. Stipules ; perianth 5-plicate, mouth con- 

 tracted, toothed. Fruit-stalk 5 lines long, slender, capsule 

 globose, very small, dark purple, glossy. 



* See p. 251 infra. 



