Edgerley. — Prothallia of Three New Zealand Lycopods. Ill 



> 



the physiological relation between the fungus and the cells it inhabits 

 and. so cannot be used for classification. 



In the same way, the differences between the embryo and young plants 

 are closely related to the position of the prothallium, whether at the surface 

 of the soil or some distance below the surface. Again, the appearance 

 of chlorophyll in the tissues is not constant. Thus, in L. Selago, when the 

 prothallium grows at the surface of the soil, chlorophyll appears in its 

 subaerial part ; and this is also the case in L. volubile. 



In other characters which are not adaptive the different species of 

 Lycopodium agree closely. Thus all species of Lycopodium usually show 

 biciliate spermatazoids, archegonia with no basal cell, and a suspensor in 

 the embryo. In all but the epiphytic forms of prothallia growth is essentially 

 intercalary, and in the epiphytic forms the apical growth is in relation to 

 the branched filamentous form. 



Thus it appears that in Lycopodium the gametophyte and the young 

 stages of the sporophyte are peculiarly adaptive. The experience of botanists 

 proves that the mature sporophyte of plants form a better basis for the 

 interpretation of affinities than does the more plastic embryonal stages, 

 and this is especially the case in Lycopodium. 



In conclusion, I wish to record my grateful thanks to Professor A. P. W. 

 Thomas for his ever-ready interest in my work, and also to Mr. J. Holloway 

 for permitting me to use material gathered by him. 



Bibliography. 



1. De Bary. : ' Sur la germination des Lycopodes." Ann. de Sci. nat., 



ser. 4, vol. ix, p. 30, 1858. 



2. Fankhauser. " Ueber der Vorkeim von Lycopodium." Botanische 



Zeitung, 1873. 



3. Treub. " Etudes sur les Lycopodiacees." Annales du Jardin botanique 



de Buitenzorg, vols. iv. v, vii, and viii. 



4. Bruchmann. " Ueber die Prothallien und die Keimpflanze von mehrerer 



Europaischer Lycopodien." 1898. 



5. Bruchmann. " Prothallium of L. complanatum." Bot. Zeitung, vol. lxvi. 



pp. 168-81. 



6. Lang. " Prothallus of Lycopodium clavatum." Annals of Botany, 1899. 



Art. XII. — Some New Species of Neiv Zealand Floivering -plants. 

 By L. Cockayne, Ph.D., F.B.S. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd December, 1913.] 



Urtica linearifolia (Hook, f.) Cockayne sp. nov. 



This is U. incisa Poir. var. linearifolia Hook. f. in the " Flora Novae- 

 Zelandiae," i, 225. The differences between U. incisa and U. linearifolia 

 are succinctly stated by Cheeseman in the " Manual of the New Zealand 

 Flora," p. 636. In addition, it may be pointed out that U. linearifolia 

 is a far taller plant than any form of U. incisa; indeed, in places it is a 

 semi-liane. 



Pittosporum divaricatum Cockayne sp. nov. 



Frutex + 1-5 m. altus, dense divaricato-ramosus, ramis rigidis, saepe 

 valde crassis, intertextis, flexuosis. Folia polymorpha : folia in statu 



