Colenso. — On new Phcenogamic Plants. 203 



Hab. On the lava slopes of Mount Ngaruahoe, Tongariro 

 Range, " altitude 5,000 feet," County of East Taupo ; 1887 : 

 Mr. H. Hill. 



Obs. A species near to V. nivalis, Hook, f., but a smaller 

 and slenderer and more branched plant, differing in its smaller 

 and glandular-hairy leaves of another form, which also dry 

 green ; in its longer and more lax peduncles and pedicels, and 

 in its capsules not being compressed and much larger than their 

 calyces. Unfortunately, I have not seen any flowers. The 

 plant, in its upright and close dwarf growth and habit, strongly 

 reminds one of the dwarf box edging used for garden borders. 



§ II. Capsule laterally compressed, didymous. 



3. V. vulcanica, sp. nov. 



Plant herbaceous, perennial ; roots long, fibrous ; stem pros- 

 trate, sub-ascending, 8-9 inches long; the whole plant (except 

 corolla) densely hairy ; hairs white, curly, sub-strigose ; stems 

 woody at bases, slender, flexuous, rooting from nodes, much 

 branched ; branchlets short. Leaves numerous, opposite, round 

 and rotund-obovate, thick, 2 lines diameter, coarsely crenate- 

 lobed (4-5 divisions) ; petioles length of leaves, broad, channelled, 

 triph-nerved. Flowers in small corymbs at tips of branchlets ; 

 pedicels 1 line long with a foliaceous bract at base. Calyx 

 4-lobed, cut to base; lobes obovate, adpressed, 2 lines long, 

 longer than capsule. Corolla large, 3 lines diameter, 4-lobed, 

 cut half-way down, the three upper lobes broadly rounded, the 

 lower narrower and much smaller, veined ; veins branching at 

 tips ; tube 0. Anthers 2, included, cordate ; filaments short ; 

 style long, exserted ; stigma capitate, rugulose. Capsule broadly 

 obcordate, emarginate, didymous, \\ lines diameter, a little 

 turgid, shorter than calyx. Seeds (immature) small, broadly 

 oval, pale ; apparently few. 



Hab. On the lower slopes of Mount Ngaruahoe, Tongariro 

 Range, " altitude 4,700 feet," County of E. Taupo ; 1887 : Mr. 

 H. Hill. 



Obs. A very peculiar and distinct species. 



4. V. lonf/iracenwsa, sp. nov. 



Plant herbaceous, annual ; roots short, fibrous ; stem de- 

 cumbent and sub-erect, 14-20 inches long, simple, rather weak ; 

 whole plant roughish substngosely hairy. Leaves reddish- 

 brown (? in age), few and distant on stem at base, broadly 

 cordate), 8 lines long, the same breadth at base, 5-nerved, 

 veinlets reticulate ; margins irregularly incised, coarsely 

 crenulate ; tips broadly rounded, obtuse ; petiole very short; 

 the lower stem leaves smaller and narrower, sub -J inch, soon 

 decreasing in size upwards. Main stem yellowish, racemed, 16 



