Colenso. — On Phasnogams. 395 



o^ 



Order LXXV. Conifee^. 

 Genus 3. Podocarpus, L'Heritier. 

 1. P. montana, sp. nov. 



Plant a low rambling shrub of diffuse growth. Leaves 

 numerous close subimbricate on all branchlets, subsex- 

 fariously disposed, oblong-lanceolate, 3 lines long, apiculate, 

 thickisb, slightly falcate, spreading and recurved, yellowish- 

 green, glabrous ; midrib prominent on both sides and with the 

 margins thickened, striate longitudinally (sub lens) in minute 

 stippled white (glaucous) striae ; petiole 1 line long, much 

 decurrent, raised from one leaf to another, giving the branch- 

 let a ridgy appearance. Male : Catkins axillary, erect on a 

 slender peduncle 3 lines long, having a thin brown oblong 

 scarious bracteole 2 lines long at its base in front, its tip 

 jagged ; usually 3 (sometimes 2) spikes together, the central 

 one longest, very slender as long as peduncle, sessile, red ; 2 

 lateral bracts sub 2 lines long at their base, patent, green, 

 oblong, subapiculate, thickisb. ; the peduncle marked with 

 decurrent sunken lines from them ; between, in front, 3 small 

 bracteoles, green, concave, appressed, tips entire and sub- 

 acute ; and, behind, 3 others, smaller, thinner, concave, with 

 their tips jagged ; anthers sub-broadly orbiculate, their tips, 

 or connectives, 3-fid or jagged. Female : Ovule ovoid, sub- 

 acute, 2 lines long, sessile on thickened peduncle, bright-red, 

 subglobular or somewhat turbinate, 4Jn. long, fleshy, juicy, 

 edible, with 2 small lateral acute points or horns, 1 on each 

 side of ovule (sometimes, but rarely, 3), the lower part of 

 peduncle slender, gr-een, short, axillary. 



Hah. High up on Euahine mountain -range, east side, 

 County of Waipawa ; April and December, 1894 : Mr. W. F. 

 Howlctt. 



Obs. I. A species near to P. nivalis, Hook. f. (also dis- 

 covered on same range, west side), but differing in its smaller 

 leaves, slenderer amentae which are also much bracteolate at 

 their bases, and with the tips of their anthers jagged, some- 

 what resembling those of P. totara, but those of P. totara are 

 larger, more produced, and more largely jagged. In one of my 

 specimens there are three peduncles of male spikes very nearly 

 forming a whorl near the top of a branchlet, two bearing each 

 3 and one 2 spikes. This species is also nearly allied to 

 P. alpina, Br., a Tasmauian and Victorian species, which 

 mainly differs in its produced connectivum ("connective- apice 

 in cornu producto") and in its spikes being " sessile and 

 solitary," &c. — a plant, too, found there at " from 3,000ft. to 

 4,000ft. altitude," much the same as these two here in New 

 Zealand. 



