280 Transactions. — Botany. 



Obs. I. I have lately received several 1-flowered specimens 

 of this minute plant, all as described ; and also — on a former 

 occasion — some others, much larger, each bearing 2-3 flowers, 

 terminal on short branchlets ; which I take, without dissec- 

 tion, to be of the same species, and, if so, then the very minute 

 1-flowered specimens are young seedling plants. 



II. Sir J. D. Hooker, in his " Handbook of the Flora of 

 New Zealand," under "E. antarctica, Benth., a native of 

 Tasmania, Fuegia, and South Chili" (which plant I also 

 originally discovered on Ruahine Mountain-range in 1845), 

 mentions having received from Sir James Hector several forms 

 of E. antarctica collected on Mount x\lta, one of them being 

 " a most minute form, |-in. high, with a single flower; alti- 

 tude, 6,000 ft." I at first supposed that this little plant might 

 prove to be of the same ; but Bentham describes E. antarctica 

 as being "glandular pubescent," with other marks of differ- 

 ence. 



Order LXX, CupuLiFERiE. 



Genus 1. Pagus, Linn. 

 1. F. truncata, sp. nov. 



A tree ; branches (specimens 3 in. -4 in. long) slender ; 

 branchlets short ; bark glabrous, dark purple-brown, irregu- 

 larly ribbed and wrinkled. Leaves glabrous, rugulose, charta- 

 ceous, dull-green above, paler below, subrhomboid-oblong, 

 fin.-lin. long, 6-7 lines wide, very obtuse, base slightly 

 tapering, margined ; margins thickened, white, dentate ; teeth 

 few, on upper half only, large, knobbed, caused by nerve being 

 pi'oduced, generally 3-4 at truncate apex ; midrib promment 

 beneath; nerves few (3-4-jugate), alternate, obsolete; vein- 

 lets closely anastomosing on lower surface, which is also 

 finely dotted ; petioles 2 lines long, narrow, slightly pubes- 

 cent ; leaf-buds narrow -ovoid, with 4 rows of scales, red- 

 brown, shining. Flowers (male) on small branchlets, sub- 

 corymbose, solitary and 2-3 together on short peduncles, 

 subsessile, pedicels small. Perianth very thin, glabrous and 

 shniing, slightly glutinous, broadly campanulate, margin 

 shortly cut into 5 broad teeth or lobes, obtuse, rounded, 

 1 -nerved ; filaments short, not exserted ; anthers long, linear, 

 reddish-brown, deeply sulcated. 



Hab. Ruahine Mountain-range, east side ; October, 1898 : 

 Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. I. This plant is evidently ahied to F.fusca, Hook, f., 

 but differs from it in several characters — in its smaller 

 leaves, which are also margined, their apices tri- or quadri- 

 dentate, the teeth knobbed, and fewer nerves ; its perianths 

 very thin, glabrous and shining ; and filaments not exserted. 

 Sir J. D. Hooker, in his clear description of Fagus fusca, 



