Colenso. — On new Phcenogamic Plants. 197 



Genus 4. Oreostylidium, Berggren.* 

 1. O. affine, sp. nov. 



Plant very small, short, ctespitose, densely tufted, 1-1^ 

 inches high, erect; stem 0; roots long, fibrous, from bases of 

 leaves. Leaves radical f-inch long, 1 line wide, rather thickisk, 

 linear-subulate with a slender rnucro, concave on one side, 

 dilated at base, glabrous, margins entire, green, yellowish and 

 sub-rigid in age. Scape slender, erect, \ inch high, with a 

 broad foliaceous bract about the middle, glandular-hairy (as 

 also the calyx and ovary), hairs tipped with globular black 

 heads. Flower single, at top of scape ; calyx erect, stout, very 

 broal (nearly as broad as ovary), margin irregularly lobed ; 

 lobes ? 6. Corolla, etc., not seen. Ovary large (for plant), 1^ 

 lines long, oblong, sub-cylindrical, tapering and jointed on to 

 scape. 



Hab. In swampy ground at west base of Mount Tongariro, 

 County of East Taupo ; 1887 : Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. I. This plant resembles Oreostylidium. subulatum, Berg- 

 gren, as carefully drawn by him ;| (which is also the " Stylidium? 

 subulatum, n. sp.," of Hook, f., as given by him with doubt, 

 from his imperfect specimens, in the "Handbook N.Z. Flora," 

 p. 168 ;) and it would be by me referred to that species were it 

 not for its differential characters — viz., its long and bracteated 

 scape, its broader calyx, with, probably, the larger number of 

 its lobes, its differently-shaped ovary, and its mucronate leaves ; 

 none of which characters are given or mentioned by either Hooker 

 or Berggren — in fact, they both give the opposite ; and tins plant 

 has, also, no long proliferous runners as is shown in Berggren's 

 figure. Unfortunately, the few fruiting specimens I have (three 

 together) were all defective in the margins of their calyces, as if 

 gnawed by some insect, and there was a similar large hole in 

 one of their ovaries, and no corollas ; the other parts of the 

 plants were perfect. 



II. Curiously enough, Berggren gives " locis uliginosis ad 

 montem Ruapehu," as one of the places in New Zealand (and 

 the only one in the North Island), where he had detected his 

 little plant ; and this place is very near the locality where Mr. 

 Hill found his specimens. 



* Oreostylidium, gen. nov., Berggren. Of this he says: "Astylidio 

 differt hoc genus corollas laciniis conformibus, columna brevi erecta, 

 stigmate latiore, capsula indehiscente." Stylidium, proper, is a very large 

 Australian genus, containing nearly 100 species. 



f In his carefully-executed work on some of our New Zealand plants, 

 and mostly species novae discovered by himself— which, unfortunately for me 

 (for us?) is written mainly in the Swedish language — entitled, "Nagra nya," 

 etc. And in mentioning this work here, I must not omit to thank Dr. 

 Berggren for it, and particularly for its most elaborately and exhaustively 

 prepared and beau til uliy executed plates of plants with their dissections. 



