390 Transactions. — Botany. 



The little flowers, still in the bud stage, then detach them- 

 selves one by one from the stalk, and, from their natural 

 buoyancy, rise to the surface of the water. Having arrived 

 there, they very shortly open, the three perianth leaflets 

 bending backwards and downwards, thus forming a little raft, 

 above which is borne the projecting stamens with their load 

 of pollen. Although the pollen is so close to the water it is 

 very seldom w-etted, for the little raft responds to every move- 

 ment, and rides over the waves quite as safely as many larger 

 vessels. The male flowers are produced in such great profu- 

 sion that the surface of the water often becomes covered with 

 the tiny rafts and their cargoes. They are drifted about by 

 currents or by wind, and sooner or later some of them are 

 certain to be washed against the female flowers, wath their 

 protruding stigmas. If so, the pollen, which is exceedingly 

 viscid, is certain to be smeared over the stigmas, and fertilisa- 

 tion consequently effected. Immediately after this takes 

 place the long flower-stalk coils up in a spiral manner, 

 thus drawing the flower under water. The coils gradually 

 become more numerous and more closely packed until at 

 length the flower (or, rather, young seed-vessel) is brought 

 down almost to the muddy bottom of the water. Here the 

 seed-vessel remains until it is ripe, when it opens and dis- 

 charges the seeds into the water. 



The peculiar mode of fertilisation which I have just de- 

 scribed is confined to a few species closely allied to Vallisneria. 

 The great majority of water-plants produce flowers raised well 

 above the water, whose pollen is carried either by the wind or 

 by insects, as is the case with most plants. 



Art. XXXI. — On some Plants neiv to the Neiv Zealand Flora. 

 By T. F. Cheeseman, F.L.S. 



[Bead before the Auckland Institute, 5th October, 1S96.] 



Haloragis cartilaginea, n. sp. 



Stems numerous, stout, erect, 6in.-12in. high, sharply 

 four-angled, usually branched above, rough with minute as- 

 perities, but otherwise glabrous. Leaves opposite, often decus- 

 sate, sessile or very shortly petiolate, broadly ovate or ovate- 

 oblong, ^in.-fin. long, acute, coarsely and deeply serrate, 

 very coriaceous, margins thickened and strongly cartilaginous. 

 Flowers small, in many-flowered racemes terminating the 

 branches, clustered, usually drooping. Calyx lobes broadly 



