188 Transactiotis. 



A slender erect or spreading perennial. Root usually slender, but 

 occasionally (in much-branclied specimens) as much as 6 mm. in diameter. 



Stems several or numerous, slender, sparingly or much, branched, 

 glabrous, 8-20 cm. and occasionally even 30 cm. long. 



Leaves in opposite pairs, almost connate at the base, linear or some- 

 what dilated towards the tips, acute or subacute, rather flaccid, entire, 

 glabrous, more or less recurved at the margins, nerveless (midrib obscure), 

 1|— 2 cm. long, 1-2| mm. in greatest width. 



Flowers few or several ; the cauline solitary in the axils of the upper- 

 most leaves, the terminal usually in pairs, white, 1^2 cm. long, pedunculate; 

 the peduncles | the length of the leaves, glabrous, slender ; calyx obconic, 

 cut for f its length into 5 rather long linear-subulate thin glabrous lobes ; 

 corolla white, longer than the calyx, deeply divided into 5 oblong lanceo- 

 late subacute apiculate prominently nerved segments ; stamens and pistil 

 half as long as the corolla. 



Hob. — Limestone ridges, bare or covered with manuka scrub, near the 

 sources of the Ure River, Marlborough ; B. C. Aston ! 



On open ridges, Mr. Aston writes, the stems are erect and stunted ; in 

 the scrub they are elongated, and more or less entangled. One specimen 

 rooted in a rock-crevice had a remarkably stout root, giving off a tuft of 

 matted branches that hung down the slope for some 15 in. 



4. Myosotis (Exarrhena) eximia sp. no v. 



Planta M. amabili (Cheesm.) subsimilis ; differt caulibus tenuioribus 

 erectis, foliis anguste elliptico-spathulatis acutis vel subacutis pilis candidis 

 brevibus subrigidis sparsis arete appressis vestitis, floribus majoribus pauci- 

 oribus late infundibuliformibus, corollae tubo latiore ac calycis lobis breviore. 



Perennial, tufted or spreading by slender prostrate more or less rooting 

 branches into patches 2-3 ft. in diameter, everywhere clothed with rather 

 stiff sparse closely appressed white hairs ; flowering-stems 1-6 from each 

 branch (commonly 1-3), erect or decumbent at the base, usually simple 

 but sometimes divided at the topmost cauline leaf, slender, leafy for half 

 their length, 5-9 in. high. 



Radical leaves numerous, narrow, eUiptic-spathulate, acute or subacute, 

 more or less apiculate, + 2 in. long, nearly J in. in greatest width, the blade 

 about as long as the narrow slightly flattened and basally dilated petiole, 

 the lower surface less closely pilose, midrib little conspicuous. Cauline 

 leaves more or less distant or almost overlapping, shorter and narrower, 

 acute, the upper sessile, the lower with progressively longer petioles. 



Racemes long-peduncled, not branched, of 10 flowers or fewer ; flowers 

 large and showy, yvhite with a yellow eye, | in. long and equally broad, 

 shortly pedicelled ; calyx narrow turbinate, cut for f its length into 

 narrow linear-subulate lobes ; corolla broadly funnel-shaped, cut |; the 

 way down into 5 rounded subacute lobes, the tube wide and shoi-ter than 

 the calyx ; stamens inserted just above the narrow rather distant scales, 

 exserted, slightly shorter than the corolla-lobes, the free filaments twice 

 as long as the anthers, their lower half adnate to the corolla-tube. Mature 

 nutlets not seen ; in immature state pale and winged. 



Hob. — ^Limestone bluffs and talus slopes of Mount Aorangi (Mangaohane 

 Station), Ruahine Range, 3,900 ft. 



This charming species was collected by Mr. Aston at the close of last 

 December. He remarks that in favourable stations it forms continuous 



