438 Transactions. — Botany. 



Islands, and subsequently by Mr. Knight, near Auckland. 

 There are no available records of its having been found in any 

 other place in New Zealand. It is very doubtful if it has a 

 habitat in the South or Stewart Islands, although the climatic 

 conditions are most favourable. 



The plant which I have identified with considerable doubt 

 as W. flavipes, Hook. f. and W., in this paper, is the only one 

 among the large collection of specimens which have been 

 examined by me that comes near the W. flavipes described 

 and figured in the " Flora Novae Zelandise," vol. ii., t. 33, f. '2. 

 In that w^ork the leeth of the peristome are described and 

 figured as being perforated at the base, whilst the plant 

 adopted by me in this paper as W. flavipes has the teeth of 

 the peristome entire. The leaves also differ slightly in their 

 outline from the figures of the former plant. This plant may 

 therefore be a different species. 



I have been unable to collect specimens of W. irroraia, 

 Mitt., or W. contecta, H. f. and W. ; neither do they occur in 

 the before-mentioned herbariums — indeed, no one appears to 

 know anything about them. 



The species described in this paper as W. chrysea is an 

 exceedingly common and variable plant, the colour ranging 

 from yellowish-green to a deep green, according to the locality 

 where it grows. The former colour occurs when the habitat 

 is on rocks, where the plants are subject to be often dried up ; 

 the other colour occurs when the habitat is on damp banks. 

 It also varies not only in the size of the plants, but in the 

 size of the capsules. This species has previously been partly 

 described by Mr. T. W. N. Beckett as a Blindia, in the 

 " Transactions of the New Zealand Institute," vol. xxv., 

 page 270. It is evidently named thus in mistake, its capsule 

 being oval, whilst in the genus Blindia the capsule is turbinate 

 or subpyriform. x'\s this plant was incomplete when originally 

 described, I have completed the description, aiid have placed 

 it in the proper genus. 



Where the description of the generic characters is incom- 

 plete I have temporarily placed those plants in this genus as 

 doubtful members of it, in order that they may be recorded. 



In the plate the peristomes are more highly magnified 

 than the other parts. 



1. W. acutifolia, sp, nov. Plate XXXVIII., fig. 1. 



Plants monoecious, perennial, brown below, green above, 

 growing in dense tufts fin. high, branched, fastigiate. Leaves 

 small, imbricating round the stem, flexuous or recurving from 

 an erect base, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, or linear-concave. 

 Margins entire. Nerve continued to the apex. Upper areola 

 small, dense ; loiver oblong ; slightly crisp when dry. Peri- 



