Colenso. — Description of new Cryptogamic Plants. 247 



Hab. Among mosses, etc., on prostrate rotten trunks, damp 

 woods near Norsewood, County of Waipawa ; 1885 : W.C. 



Obs. A species having pretty close affinity with the two 

 preceding, and presenting a similar appearance ; but widely 

 differing in form of stipules, etc. 



4. M. fugax, sp. nov. 



Plant small, 1-2 inches long ; stems procumbent and sub- 

 erect, straggling, much branched ; branches rather distant, long, 

 filiform, few-leaved, naked below. Leaves alternate, obliquely 

 oblong, broadest at base, amplexicaul, ^g-th of an inch long, 

 entire, tip broad, very obtuse (sometimes slightly retuse and 

 sub-sinuate), upper margin much arched and very slightly im- 

 bricating towards base, the lower straight ; pale-green ; very 

 fugacious. Cells small, orbicular, with a central longitudinal 

 band of larger ones, increasing in size from apex to near base. 

 Stipules very minute, free, sub-palmate, 4-laciniate ; nearly all 

 laciniaB subuJate and highly cellular. 



Hab. On bark of living trees, among other small Hepatica ; 

 wet woods near Norsewood, County of Waipawa; 1885 : W.C. 



Obs. A small wiry-looking species, having affinity with 

 M. convexum, Lind., a Cape of Good Hope species, and also 

 approaching M. australe, Lind., a Fijian species. It has 

 rather a ragged look, especially when compared living with the 

 three foregoing New Zealand species ; mainly through the easy 

 falling-off of its leaves, which happens with the most careful 

 handling, probably owing to their excessive thinness from the 

 large cells at their bases. 



5. M. similis, sp. nov. 



Small, stems about 1 inch long, dichotomous ; branchlets 

 short, divergent. Leaves pale-green, somewhat distant, rarely 

 overlapping at base, flat, spreading, obliquely oblong-quadrate, 

 3- (sometimes 2-) dentate, teeth short, obtuse ; dorsal margin 

 much arched, broad and rounded at base, irregularly sinuate 

 towards apex ; ventral margin slightly irregularly sinuate ; cells 

 small, confused, with a band of larger ones running from base 

 towards apex within the ventral margin. Stipules free, small, 

 sub-quadrate, 4-fid, largely cellular ; segments very long and 

 capillary. 



Hab. Forests near Norsewood, County of Waipawa ; among 

 other small Hepatica ; 1885; W.C. 



Obs. A species having close affinity with M. taylorianum, 

 Mitt., but differing in its leaves being distant and much broader 

 at their bases, with sub-sinuate margins, and obtuse and short 

 apical teeth, and also in its stipules being sub-quadrate and 

 largely laciniate, with long cellular capillary segments. Only a 

 few broken specimens were found, mixed among other Hepaticcc, 



