264 Transactions. — Botany. 



new opening flowers of the coming spring-summer season ; at 

 such time, too, the gromid is covered with the glossy red fruits, 

 which are also juicy and sweet. The pleasing phenomenon 

 served to remind me of the poet Thomson's ideal of vegetation 

 in the begmning — the Golden Age of man, — 



" Great Spring before 

 Green'd all the year ; and fruits and blossoms blush'd 

 In social sweetness on the self -same bough." 



— Seasons : Spring, I. 319. 



The male flowers likewise, at the same time, are really hand- 

 some, with their large heads of fringe-like anthers. 



Obs. II. I have long known this plant in fruit only ; this, 

 however, was owing to its autumnal flowering (different to the 

 other species of this genus), for which I was not prepared. 



Order LIH.— SCROPHULAEINEiE. 



Genus 4. Gratiola, Linn. 

 1. G. co7icinna, sp. nov. 



Plant procumbent, creeping, matted, sub-ascending. Stems 

 7-10 inches long, stout, purple-spotted, simple or slightly 

 branched, puberulous with long white flattish-jointed glandular 

 hairs. Leaves distant, sub ^-inch apart, orbicular and orbicu- 

 lar-elliptic, 2 lines long, membranaceous, of a pleasing green, 

 glabrous, reticulately veined, with 4-5 small obtuse teeth each 

 having a coloured spot at its base, petioled ; petioles short, 

 broad. Flowers rather few, axillary, solitary, peduncled ; 

 peduncles 1-2 lines long, stoutish, hairy. Calyx coloured, 

 hairy, leafy, 5-parted to base ; lobes long, unequal, 3-nerved, 

 pellucid-dotted, toothed, recurved, tips obtuse; with two long 

 similar bracts at base. Corolla 4 lines long, white, somewhat 

 hairy ; tube slightly curved, much veined ; veins purple and 

 branched above ; limb spreadhig, 4-lobed ; upper lip large, 

 Bub-bilobed, thickly clothed with yellow glandular hairs ; lower 

 lip 3-fid, each lobe emarginate. Stigma sub-rhomboid, dilated, 

 flattish. Capsule sub-orbicular, turgid, green, glabrous, shining. 

 Seeds brown, conical, very obtuse, a little curved. 



Hah. Edges of a swamp in forest, south bank of the River 

 Mangatawhaiuui, near Norsewood, County of Waipawa, where 

 it thicldy covers the ground in large spreading patches, present- 

 ing a very pleasing and neat appearance ; March, 1886 : W.C. 



I have not noticed it anywhere else. 



Obs. This species is evidently allied to G. nana, Benth., 

 but it is a much larger plant, and is very distinct in several of 

 its characters. 



Genus 10. Euphrasia, Liuu. 

 1. E. tricolor, sp. nov. 



Plant perennial, sub-shrubby, 8-12 inches high ; erect, com- 



