Petkie. — On Ncn- Ncoiive Plants. 401 



silvery-white with silky hairs, the flowers are a rich sulphur- 

 yellow, and the flowering stems are slender and invariably 

 simple. The description of it in the Appendix to the " Hand- 

 book," though drawn up from a single specimen, accords per- 

 fectly with a considerable suite of specimens in my herbarium. 

 It is a very rare plant, and is now almost extinct at the only 

 known habitat near Cromwell. The present species grows in 

 great profusion in most of the localities where I have observed 

 it. It stands drouglit very well, and is well worth cultivating.. 



4. Glossostigiiia siihmersiun, sp. uov. 



A minute herb, Avith very slender intricate stems, creeping, 

 and rooting at the nodes. Leaves opposite, but sometimes 

 fascicled from non-development of the internodes, linear, 

 faintly one-nerved, entire, glabrous, -i^in. long. Pedicels as 

 long as the leaves, axillary, very slender, borne alternately 

 on opposite sides of the creeping stem. 



Flowers very minute, stamens two. 



Hah. Lake Waihola. This curious little species grows on 

 the shores of Lake Waihola below high-tide level, and is sub- 

 merged for a good many hours daily. It is very inconspicuous, 

 and when not in flower very easily overlooked. The flowers, 

 though so minute, attract the observer's notice by glittering 

 in the sunshine like small beads of dew. It has only two 

 stamens, a character which readily distinguishes it from the 

 common species, G. elatinoidcs, Benth. Its nearest relative 

 seems to be G. f^pathulatum, Arnot, from Eockhampton 

 (Queensland) . 



5. Deschavqysia cliapmani, sp. uov. 



Culiiis about lOin. high, decumbent and branched at the 

 base, slender, leafy to the base of the panicle. Leaves flaccid, 

 flat, narrow ; ligule long, subulate, scarious, the basal part 

 much broader than the blade of the leaf; sheaths deeply 

 striate. 



Panicle about 4in. long, laxly branched, the branches three 

 or fewer, subdivided into scabrid capillary branchlets bearing 

 numerous rather distant shortly-pedicelled spikelets. 



Spikelets about i-in. long, two-flowered (rarely three- 

 flowered), green, shining; outer glumes unequal, membranous, 

 narrow-lanceolate, acuminate, the lower one-nerved and half as 

 long as the spikelet, the upper three-nerved and two-thirds the 

 length of the spikelet ; flowering glume membranous, broadly 

 oblong, truncate and eroded into four or more teeth, nsually 

 one-nerved (additional nerves when present very faint), with 

 a short slender blunt dorsal arm : palea bifid, with two faint 

 ciliated sub-median nerves : rachilla glabrous, produced to half 

 the length of the upper flower. 

 26 



