27t> Transactions. — Botany, 



it to be distinct from A. candidum; but not till this summer 

 (January, 1885) did I obtain it in its flowering state, and then 

 only by bringing its roots away last year from the woods and 

 planting them in a flowering pot : they have grown well and 

 rapidly. 



Obs. II. This plant has some peculiar habits, which, having 

 repeatedly noticed them, are worth recording. It only opens 

 one flower at a time, beginning at the lowest, when the seg- 

 ments of its perianth quickly assume their tightly reflexed posi- 

 tion, and its anthers are already bursting at their tips ; it only 

 remains open for one day, closing at nightfall, when the seg- 

 ments, etc., are closely and longitudinally appressed to the 

 ovary, where they remain. The ovary rapidly swells, and its 

 pedicel elongates. After the first lowest flower has flowered, 

 the second one in the same axil (scarcely visible before) begins 

 to lengthen its pedicel, but this did not expand. Its leaves 

 begin early to wither at their tips, before the plant has opened 

 one-third of its flowers. 



Order IX. JUNCEiE. 

 Genus 3. Luzula, De Candolle. 

 1. L. sub-clavata, sp. nov. 



A tufted erect herb, branching from the roots. Culms 

 slender, sparingly leafy, 18-24 inches high. Leaves numerous, 

 flat, and grass-like, 5-6 inches long, 2 lines wide, 16-nerved, 

 with distant transverse nettings, apices thickened terete and 

 sub-clavate, margins slightly and distantly serrulate, and 

 sparsely ciliate with very long whitish hairs. Flowers in a 

 long, loose, slender panicle of 2 (sometimes 3) sub-sessile 

 broadly ovoid many-flowered heads, several inches apart ; heads 

 \ inch diameter, simple or compound, on short pedicels, the 

 lowermost head having 2-3 long narrow foliaceous bracts at 

 base, their apices thickened and terete like those of the leaves, 

 the uppermost head is usually bractless. Perianth small, 1 line 

 long ; segments ovate-acuminate, whitish-brown with a dark 

 central line, much longer than capsule ; stigmas long, flexuous, 

 and rough. Capsule sub-ovoid, triquetrous, smooth, shining ; 

 valves broadly oblong-lanceolate, apiculate, with a strong central 

 vein. Seeds oblong, turgid, darkish brown, shining, finely reti- 

 culate-striate, with a dark spot at tip, the hilum produced and 

 puberulous, and a nanow white line forming the ventral suture. 

 Bracteoles small, broadiy ovate, white, shining, adpressed ; tips 

 minutely ragged with a mucro. 



Hah. Dry woods, banks of Eiver Mangatawhaiiti, between 

 Norsewood and Danneverke, County of Waipawa ; 1885 : W.C. 



