394 Transactions. — Botany. 



Spike (damaged) axillary, narrow, -|in. long; berry small, 

 globular, muricatulate, dark-brown when ripe. 



Hab. Woods near the East Cape ; 1894 : Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. A far more robust and different-looking species than 

 the commoner N. one, P. urvilleana. I received several 

 specimens, but, owing to their succulent nature, and long and 

 close confinement in carriage hither, they were all but useless. 



2. P. novte-zealandice, sp. nov. 



Plant small, herbaceous, succulent, glabrous, caaspitose- 

 bushy, erect, 12-14 branches from one rootstock ; rootstock 

 thick, irregular, knotty ; rootlets numerous, terete, 1-1| lines 

 diameter, hairy. Branches dichotomous, 4in.-9in. high, 

 spreading, leafy above, bare below, striate ; upper branches 

 puberulent ; hairs patent. Leaves opposite whorled, 4 and 

 3 in a whorl, broadly elliptic and suborbicular, 4-5 (rarely 6) 

 lines long, 4-5 lines broad, rounded at both ends, numerous 

 above (not crowded), thickish, slightly concave, dark-green 

 above, paler below, minutely and irregularly punctiform, 

 young leaves puberulent below with short white patent and 

 distant hairs ; veins obsolete fresh, but tri-nerved with many 

 veinlets dry ; petioles stoutish, subterete, 1-1^ lines long, 

 slightly pubescent, as also peduncles. Spikes terminal single 

 erect, slender, -|in.— fin. long, pale-green ; peduncle slender, 

 shorter than spike, 4-6 lines long ; bracts (or squamae) under 

 fruit, circular peltate, margins finely ciliolate ; anthers very 

 small, pale, orbicular with a deep crease, intermixed through- 

 out spike, filaments very short. Berry ovoid, ^in. long, tip 

 produced obtuse, reddish when ripe. 



Hab. Woods near the East Cape ; 1894 : Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. A peculiarly neat little plant, very different from all 

 other species of this large genus known to me ; unfortu- 

 nately, it does not dry well, though better than the preceding 

 species, from which the large fleshy leaves all fall away in 

 drying. 



Order LXXIV. Balanophore^]. 



Genus 1. Dactylantrms, Hook. f. 



1. D. taylori, Hook. f. 



[For description, see "Handbook of the New Zealand 

 Flora," p. 255. I mention this highly curious, peculiar, and 

 very scarce plant (it having only been met with twice during 

 the last fifty years since its first detection by the Eev. R. 

 Taylor — once by Mr. A. Hamilton, near Tarawera, Hawke's 

 Bay, and now by Mr. H. Hill), though not quite new, to give 

 its new habitat — woods near the East Cape, whence Mr. Hill 

 brought some very fine specimens, unfortunately, however, 

 like the preceding, much damaged in long transit.] 



