Colenso. — On new Cryptogams. 235 



closely adpressed, erect, imbricate, linear-acuminate, sub-cylin- 

 drical compressed, flattish on one side, convex on the other, l£ 

 lines long, pale yellow-green, shining ; tips very long, acute and 

 reddish. Peduncles terminal, single, erect, £ inch long, slender, 

 sub-cylindrical, striate, with a few yellow cauline bracts as long 

 as leaves, narrow, ovate-acuminate, flexuous and squarrose, 

 distant and scattered below, sub-verticillate (about 4 together) 

 above. Spike 1 inch long, cylindrical, scales sub-peltate, sex- 

 fariously arranged, very close and imbricate, ovate-acuminate, 

 yellow with a blackish central stripe, adpressed below ; veins 

 closely anastomosing, apparent when held up between the eye 

 and light ; margins finely erose wavy and recurved ; tips spread- 

 ing squarrosely. Capsule wider than scale, orbicular-reniform, 

 pale yellow. 



Hab. Lava beds, base of Mount Ngaruahoe, County of East 

 Taupo ; " altitude 3,000 feet ;" 1887 : Mr. H. Bill. 



Obs. I. This little plant is somewhat allied to L. clavatum 

 var. magellanicum (of the "Handbook N.Z. Flora"), but differs 

 from that species in its stem not being creeping below, and hi 

 not being fastigiately branched ; in its small slender few-leaved 

 (almost bare) peduncles, and in its scales being of a different 

 shape, narrower and entire at their bases, etc. 



II. L. clavatum var. magellanicum, is also said by Hooker 

 (loc. cit.) to be identical with L. pichinchense (Hook. " Ic. Plant.," 

 tab. 85), and, in " Flora of New Zealand," it is further said to be 

 identical with L. heterophyUum, Hook., ("Ic. Fil." tab. 113). I 

 have closely examined those drawings, and also that of L. clava- 

 tum, Hook. (" Brit. Ferns," tab. 49, and Sowerby's " English 

 Botany," tab. 1451,) and find this plant to have no close 

 affinity with them ; in fact, to differ considerably in several 

 characters. I have received three specimens of this plant, that 

 are pretty nearly all alike in size and ramification, all dichoto- 

 mously spreading ; two of them behig good fruiting specimens — 

 one, 8-branched above and bearing 4 single spikes, and one, 

 6-branched with 2 single spikes. 



2. L. curvifolium, sp. nov. 



Plant, rhizome or main stem "creeping on the surface of the 

 ground." Stems erect, 10-12 inches high, slender, wiry, hard, 

 whitish, distantly leafy, leaves somewhat sub-verticillately dis- 

 posed ; sparingly branched. Branches sub-erect, alternate, 3-5 

 inches long, sub-flabelliform, much branched above, very leafy 

 throughout ; branchlets dichotomous, slender, 2-3 inches long, 

 sub-erect. Leaves loosely imbricating all round, flat, very 

 narrow, linear-acuminate, 2 lines long, (larger ones on main 

 stems 3-3^ lines long, very distant, and sub-appressed,) decur- 

 rent, spreading, patent, curved ; tips ascending, acute. Spikes 



