204 Transactions. — Botany. 



inches long, simple, with 2 pairs of floral branches below, 

 opposite and axillary (from a leaf), 8-9 inches long, flowers 

 numerous, regular, free, sub J inch apart ; pedicel 1 line long, 

 stout; bract at base lanceolate, obtuse, much ciliate, rather 

 longer than calyx ; petiole short. Calycine segments 4, split to 

 base, linear-lanceolate, 3-nerved, ciliate, longer than capsule ; 

 tips obtuse. Corolla (?) very small, lobes rounded, pale, mem- 

 branaceous, much veined, minutely punctulate with dark 

 coloured dots ; anthers rather large, reniform-cordate, blue ; 

 filaments yellow-brown ; style erect, stoutish, h line long ; 

 stigma capitate, penicillate. Capsule yellowish, broadly ob- 

 cordate-reniform, sub-didymous, deeply emargiuate, 2 lines 

 broad, slightly compressed, glabrous, veined, finely reticulated 

 with numerous minute longitudinal cells ; opening loculicidally 

 along the margin ; valves gaping ; margins ciliate ; style per- 

 sistent. Seeds, 7-8 in each cell, oval, slightly narrower at 

 base, | line long, smooth, pale-brown, a little convex on one side 

 and fiat on the other ; semi-transparent, the nucleus being 

 clearly seen in situ. 



Hab. Among herbage, grassy spots, margins of forests south 

 of Danneverke, County of Waipawa ; February, 1887 : W.C. 



Obs. This appears to me to be an interesting species, from 

 its simplicity and great length of floral racemes. Unfortunately 

 I could not obtain a single good flowering specimen, the plants 

 having long been past flowering (indeed, were withering), but 

 after long search I found a single minute unopened flower at 

 tip of a raceme, whence my description of the corolla, which is 

 necessarily imperfect. As a species it is naturally allied to our 

 New Zealand species, V. elongata, Benth. ; also, to some similar 

 herbaceous Australian ones, as V. calycina and V. plebeia, of 

 Brown ; but is widely distinct from them all. 



Order LXIIL— POLYGONE.E. 



Genus 2. Muhlenbeckia, Meisn. 



1. M. microphylla, sp. nov. 



Plant shrubby, depressed, 3-4 feet high, forming dense, 

 thickly branched, matted, round-topped, impenetrable elastic 

 bushes ; main stems, £-f inch diameter, much intermixed and 

 crooked, 2-4 feet or more long, very tough and hard, sub-rigid, 

 black ; branchlets numerous, long, slender, flexuous, implexed 

 and twining ; bark light-red, glossy. Leaves very few, scattered, 

 of various shapes and sizes, mostly sub-orbicular, oblate, and 

 broadly elliptic, £-1 line (rarely 2 linos) long, usually about 1 

 line, thickish, dull green with purple margins; tips emarginate, 

 obtuse ; petioles slender, of various lengths, generally the length 

 of the leaf, sometimes longer, channelled, slightly puberulous ; 

 stipules minute, very membranous, sub-quadrate, wavy, brown : 



