282 Transactions. — Botany. 



are also " broad, flat, 1-nerved, and obtuse at tips." More- 

 over, the "stamens" or "filaments" are almost invariably 

 represented as being three or four in number — sometimes, but 

 rarely, six ; I find them, however, to be usually double that 

 number, viz., eight. I had both hoped and intended to have 

 paid some close attention to this subject during this summer 

 (1885-86), in their native woods, and in their proper season of 

 first flowering, (which was also the reason of my not having 

 more closely examined in that particular those species I have 

 herein described,) but the great distance from me of their known 

 habitats (nearly one hundred miles), and my time now being 

 fully occupied with other matters, prevent my doing so. I 

 would, therefore, recommend this study to those botanists in 

 New Zealand who may have both time and opportunity of per- 

 forming it ; and that not merely for determining whether those 

 elongated filaments (or some of them) are really hypogynous 

 scales, but for the purpose of ascertaining the several forms of 

 the connectives of the respective species. 



Class III. Cryptogamia.* 

 Order IV. MUSCI. 

 Genus 46. Polytrichum, Linn. 

 1. P. ruahinicum, sp. nov. 



Stems simple, erect, rather stout, sub-rigid, red, 1-2 inches 

 high, about i inch of lower portion bare. Leaves numerous, 

 spreading; lower slightly decurved, upper erect; linear-subulate, 

 5 lines long, smooth, softisb, green, opaque, margin finely 

 pellucid and sharply serrate to base ; tips acute, brown ; nerve 

 stout ; base much and suddenly dilated ; basal cells minute, 

 sub-orbicular, and double-walled, those of the dilated mem- 

 branous portion larger, linear-oblong and rectangular, and 

 single-walled. Fruit-stalk single, lateral, stout, 4^-5 inches 

 long, stiff, red, glossy, very flexuous or tortuous (as many as 

 sixteen large crinkles in a single seta). Capsule oblong, 3-sided, 

 gibbous above, 2^ lines long, sub-erect, green, constricted below 

 mouth, margin of mouth bright-red ; operculum large, conical, 

 very obtuse, pale ; calyptra very small, reddish-brown, naked, 

 base narrow and much lacerated, very slightly hairy near base 

 and at extreme tip, but only perceptible under a good lens. 



Hab. On sides of gulleys, eastern slopes of the Kuahine 

 mountain range, County of Waipawa ; November, 1885 : Mr. 

 H. Hill. 



* The paper I had prepared containing Cryptogaraic plants (sp. nov.), 

 was read at the ordinary meeting of the Hawke's Bay Philosophical Insti- 

 tute held in September, 1885 : however, these in this paper (with a few 

 others) were since discovered, and being six notable novelties, I embrace this 

 opportunity of early making them known. — W.C. 



