304 Transactions. — Botany. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXXVIII. 



PJiascum (Pleuridium) lanceolatum. 

 Fig. 



1. Stem leaves. 



2. Perichsetial leaf. 



3. Capsule. 



Phascum (Pleuridium) longifolitim. 



1. Stem leaf. 



2. Perichaetial leaf and capsule. 



3. Calyptra. 



Phascum (Cycnaa) m-noldii. 



1. Lower stem leaves, 



2. Middle stem leaves. 



3. Upper stem leaf. 



4. Perichsetial leaf and capsule. 



5. Calyptra. 



Art. XXXI. — On Lessonia variegata, J. Ag., Mscr. 

 By EoBEET M. Laing, B.Sc. 



[Read before the Canterbury Philosophical Institute, 1st November, 1893.] 

 Plates XXXIX., XL. 



In the " Flora Novse-Zelaudiae," vol. ii., p. 217, Lessonia 

 fuscescens (Bory, Voy. Coq., p. 75) is put down as indigenous 

 to New Zealand ; and on the authority of Lyall its habitat is 

 given as Lyall's Bay, Cook Strait. In the Handbook, vol. 

 ii., p. 656, it is stated also to occur on the east coast — i.e., of 

 the North Island — Colenso being the authority. Unfor- 

 tunately I have not access to the original description of the 

 plant in the Voyage of the " Coquille," and no synopsis of the 

 species is given in the "Flora Nova3-Zelandite " or in the "Flora 

 Antarctica." In the latter work, however, it is figured, vol. ii., 

 167, 168, and 171d; and in the "Handbook of the New 

 Zealand Flora" there is a short account of the species. It is 

 more fully described in Agardh's " Species Algarum," vol. i., 

 p. 151. 



The specific description in the Handbook, which agrees 

 well with the figures in the "Flora Antarctica," is as fol- 

 lows : — " L. fuscesceiis : Gregarious, forming submarine minia- 

 ture forests, trunks sometimes 10ft. long, cylindric, as thick 

 as the thigh, bearing towards the toxD short branches with 



