282 Transactions. — Botany. 



3. P. siiborhiculata, sp. nov. 



Plant dendroid, 3-4 inches high ; stem (and main branches) 

 black, bare at base, leafy above, tripinnately branched at top ; 

 branches long, irregular, spreading ; sometimes a branch, with 

 its numerous upper and close bushy branchlets, is larger than 

 that whence it sprang ; branchlets clear greenish-brown, curved, 

 drooping, 2^ lines wide (including leaves). Leaves alternate, 

 distant on main stem and branches, closer on branchlets, but 

 not much imbricate ; green when young, dusky-green when 

 old ; those on main stem sub-i'eniform-orbicular, 2 lines dia- 

 meter, horizontal, patent, slightly amplexicaul ; on branches 

 orbicular or orbicular-cordate ; margins largely denticulato- 

 ciliate (almost spiny), except the basal portion of the dorsal 

 margin ; teeth or spinous ciliae reddish, irregular, coarse, 

 jointed, the largest with 2-3 lateral cells at their bases ; mar- 

 ginal interstices between teeth curved and rounded ; cells large, 

 orbicular, and oblong, with thick double walls and clear trian- 

 gular dots in the interspaces, smaller and more compact in a 

 regular line on the margins. Involucral similar, but larger and 

 spreading. Perianth terminal, free, obovate, 3 Hues long, 

 curved, compressed ; lips semicircular, much produced, ciliate- 

 toothed, extending round apex and slightly down the sides ; 

 base cylindrical, peduncled. 



Hab. Dry hilly forests near Norsewood, County of Wai- 

 pawa; 1886: W.C. 



Obs. This species is very near P. gigantea, Lind., which it 

 much resembles in form and general appearance, though a 

 smaller plant. It differs, however, from that species in its 

 larger and more orbicular leaves and in their areolation, their 

 margins being much more coarsely toothed and sub-spiny, and 

 their dental interspaces rounded ; its perianths, too, are much 

 more round and produced at their tips, with longer, more 

 numerous and extensive ciliate teeth ; and its involucral leaves 

 are more distant and spreading. 



4. P. exilis, sp. nov. 



Plant creeping at base, sub-erect, 8-4 inches high, exces- 

 sively slender, few and loosely branched ; branches difl'use, dis- 

 tant, long, often 3 branchlets opposite and near each other 

 spring from near the top of the main stem, and a sub-horizontal 

 one from close under perianth ; stem (with leaves) Jjj inch wide, 

 red, smooth. Leaves light-green, small, alternate, distant, 

 obovate, apices very obtuse and truncate, closer and very slightly 

 overlapping at tops of branches, vontral margin and apex 

 coarsely and irregularly denticulate, (mostly 10 teeth on ventral 

 margin and 2-3 at apex,) dorsal margin entire, an oblique ridge 

 or thickening near the margin extending to stem (giving the 



