240 Transactions. — Botany. 



entire ; cells oblong and distinct at the upper angles, but longi- 

 tudinally linear and compact in the main part. Fruit un- 

 known. 



Hah. Ash-beds, base of Mount Ruapehu, Tongariro Range, 

 " altitude 5,400 feet," County of East Taupo ; 1887 : Mr. H. 

 Hill. 



Obs. I. This fine species is near the large known New Zea- 

 land species, P. dendroides, Comm., but differs much from that 

 plant in several characters — viz., in the number, size, and dis- 

 position of its branches, in its leaves being of a fresh light-green 

 colour, longer, narrower and margined, with fewer, shorter and 

 sharper teeth, and especially in the shape and larger size of their 

 lower vaginant portion ; in the stem-leaves being continuous 

 imbricate and closely adpressed, with also large quadrate bases ; 

 and in its thick white woolly roots. 



II. I have received several good specimens of this plant, 

 and they are all very similar; unfortunately none bear fruit. 

 This, however, is a common feature with those large dendroid 

 mosses, and is often found to be the case with P. dendroides, P. 

 si/iiamosa, Daivsonia siqyerba, etc. I have occasionally fallen in 

 with large patches of these mosses in the forests without de- 

 tecting a single fruiting specimen. Indeed, both in Schwae- 

 grichen's drawing with dissections of P. dendroides, and in 

 Hooker's drawing of P. squamosa (discovered by him in Fuegia), 

 there are no fruits given. 



Genus Gl. Isothecium, Bridel. 



§B. Hypnodendkon. 



(Stem naked below, fastigiately branched above.) 



a. Capsule terete. 



1. /. heterophil I um, sp. nov. 



Stems stoutish, erect, 3-4 inches high, woody, dark-coloured 

 (blackish-red), shining, scarred below, leafy above, base thickened 

 with many fine dark-brown capillary rootlets ; numerously and 

 closely branched at top of stem, sub-umbellate, mostly sub- 

 orbicular in outline, 2-2£ inches diameter ; branches 1^ inches 

 long, 8-pinnate, spreading, sometimes the lowermost pair of 

 branches are very long and depending. Leaves pale-green, 

 shining, sub-concave, of various shapes and sizes ; cells nar- 

 row, linear, crowded, broader shorter and clearer at bases ; 

 margins not bordered : (1) leaves on upper stem large, 

 broadly-ovate-acuminate, l£ lines long, distant, transparent, 

 spreading, dimidiate, their margins very slightly and distantly 

 denticulate-serrulate ; outer basal margin much rounded, sub- 

 amplexicaul ; tips piliferous, fiexuous : (2) leaves on branches 



