260 Transactions. 



mixed with a small moss, and had to be dissected in water very small 

 portions at a time. The prothalli are almost colourless, and are very 

 small and delicate, and hence not easy to distinguish. They were never 

 found attached to young plants which bore more than two protophylls. 

 The youngest plantlets are also very minute, but are more easily seen 

 amongst the moss and soil by reason of their vivid green colour. Many 

 of the localities where L. laterale grows become dry during the summer, 

 and probably in some summers the young plants all die; but during 

 spring and early summer they doubtless are growing in large numbers 

 in favourable spots. A close examination of disturbed soil — ^.g., gum- 

 diggers' holes, hoof-prints, &c. — along the edge of the bogs around 

 Waikumete and Henderson, on the Auckland Isthmus, at that season of 

 the year, and in all probability generally, results in the discovery of 

 colonies of the young plants of this interesting species. 



L. cernuum. 



On many occasions, and in many different parts of the Auckland 

 Isthmus, as also in the Mongonui County, I have noticed young plants 

 of this species growing in the vicinity of older plants. The spores would 

 seem to germinate very freely. But, as in the case of L. laterale, a dry 

 summer would bring about the destruction of most of the plantlets. A 

 damp clay bank or a shaded roadside cutting in the neighbourhood of 

 adult plants is the best place to search for the young plants and pro- 

 thalli — i.e. they are more in evidence under artificial than under natural 

 conditions. Such a clay bank, if damp, shaded, and old enough for a 

 thin covering of moss and slime fungus to have appeared on it, invariably 

 contains the young plants of this species, generally in great abundance. 

 The same method of search for the prothallus was adopted as in the case 

 of the last species. The very young plants and prothalli of L. cernuum 

 are difficult to clean owing to the intimate penetration of the clay and 

 slime by their numerous rhizoids. L. cernuum and L. laterale both 

 grow commonly from the Auckland Isthmus northwards, but their habitats 

 do not overlap. The former species keejos to the higher parts of the 

 undulating clay gum-lands, while the latter is to be found in the hollows 

 and on the damp lower parts of the hillside. I have never found the 

 prothalli and young plants of both species growing together. However, 

 even if this had been so, it would not have been very difficult to dis- 

 tinguish between them, for in spite of the similarity in appearance 

 both of their prothalli and of the very young plantlets there are some 

 characteristic differences. 



L. densum. 



Frequent and long search for the young plants of this species in 

 various parts of the Auckland Province, where it grows abundantly, has 

 never met with much success. On one occasion, in the neighbourhood of 

 the Bay of Islands, I found two young plants, one of which still showed a 

 lai'ge " foot." The plants were growing in a grove of Leptospernium on 

 a patch of thick damp moss. At the time when they were found it was 

 impossible to spend more than a few minutes in searching, but I have 

 no doubt that a closer examination of the ground would have resulted 

 in the discovery of still other young plants. The rarity of occurrence 

 of prothallial plants of this species maf be due simply to the fact that its 

 usual habitat is a dry open one, where damp shaded spots, favourable 

 to the development of the prothallus, infrequently occur. 



