Colenso. — On Phaenogams. 383 



Art. XLVI. — Phaenogams : A Description of a few mora 

 Neivly -discovered Indigenous Plants ; being a Further Con- 

 tribution towards the making knoivn the Botany of Nexo 

 Zealand. 



By W. Colenso, F.R.S., F.L.S. (Lond.), Ac 



[Read before the Hawkc's Bay Pliilosophical Institute, 12th November, 



1894.] 



Class I. DICOTYLEDONS. 

 Order VI. Caryophyllje. 

 Genus 2.* Stellaria, Linn. 

 1. S. pelhicida, sp. nov. 



A perennial, prostrate, slender, rambling, weak, flaccid, 

 creeping herb, 12in.-18in. long, growing profusely in large 

 beds or patches of several feet each way, rooting from nodes ; 

 stems containing one central capillary tenacious pith. Leaves 

 dark-green, distant, opposite in pairs, suborbicular (generally 

 broader than long), 1-2 (rarely 2-|) lines diameter, apiculate, 

 minutely punctiform with white dots, margined, margins 

 slightly uneven with dark border (also midrib) underneath, 

 base slightly decurrent ; petioles flattish length of leaves, 

 slender, with a few weak hairs, connate and finely fimbriate. 

 Flowers (noticed) very few ; peduncles axillary, longer than 

 leaves, 2- sometimes 3-flowered ; pedicels a little longer, 

 sometimes unequal, with a pair of large concave scarious bracts 

 at base, 3 lines long, and another similar pair below the 

 middle of the longer pedicel ; bracts pale, ovate-acuminate, 

 with a dark central line. Flowers very small ; petals ; 

 sepals 5, 1 line long, ovate-acuminate, with broad white scarious 

 margins, 3-nerved, nerves dark-purple; styles 3, rather large, 

 rough ; capsule produced, longer than sepals, broadly ovoid, 

 very obtuse, white, very membranous, semi-transparent, seeds 

 visible through it ; seeds large for plant, 11, oblong-ellipsoid 

 and suborbicular, turgid with a notch, bright cinnamon-colour 

 with darker margins, minutely muriculate (under lens). 



Hab. Interior deep forests near Dannevirke, County of Wai- 

 pawa ; March, 1891 : W. C. 



Obs. This plant was only detected in two low-lying locali- 

 ties in those dense forests, where, however, it forms large 

 closely-overgrowing beds. Small and humble though it is, it. 



* The numbers of the orders and genera given here are those of them 

 in the " Handbook of the New Zealand Flora." 



