996 - Transactions.— Botany. 
I should also inform you that several of the plants I have now described 
in my present paper, and also bring specimens of, to show you this 
evening, were not first detected by me during this past year. A few have 
been long known to me; others I first knew of two or three years ago, but 
wanted time to examine them and work them up. Of others I required 
better or more complete specimens, while, for a few, I am wholly indebted 
to my botanical friends. 
Still I have been very fortunate during the past year. I have spent a 
much longer time in patient research in our woods, and deep-secluded glens, 
and quiet far-off hill-tops and sides, both in winter and in summer, in frost 
and in heat; and nature has bounteously rewarded her patient plodding 
disciple and faithful follower, as she always does all such who serve her 
heartily and simply, and not for pecuniary gain. 
Among the principal or first-class prizes with which I have been 
honoured, and which I wish to bring prominently to your notice, are a 
handsome white-flowering standard Metrosideros, a curious small-leaved 
Panaz, a large-leaved Tupeia, and a fine Fagus; 4 Orchids (one being a new 
and rare Bolbophyllum, two others of the beautiful gem-like genus Cory- 
santhes, and one a very fine and handsome Thelymitra); of Liliaceae, a 
Dianella, and an Astelia (the male flower—another single specimen—of the one 
female flower I discovered three years ago); and a few of Cyperacea, among 
them a most peculiar Carex, having slender trailing culms more than two 
yards long. Of Cryptogams a few ferns, among them a neat little Polypodium 
and a pretty Lindsea, which latter will serve to fill up a gap or natural 
sequence in our known species; several other curious Hepatice, besides the 
Symphyogyna already mentioned, particularly of the genera Petalophyllum, 
Aneura, Fimbriaria, and Anthoceros; a handsome Lichen, giving another 
distinct. species to a small natural genus ; and a few highly curious Fungi. 
Specimens of all of them, both dry and in spirits, some of them being 
also mounted on cardboard, will be severally laid before you; and may you 
all have as much pleasure in going over and examining them as I have had, 
over and over, in the finding and gathering, examining and describing them. 
Genus I, Viola, Linn. 
Viola perexigua, sp. nov. 
A very small tufted perennial herb, its crown of leaves and flowers 
springing from a thick woody root having many fine and long fibres, with- 
out branches or stolons. Leaves, 8-12, broadly cordate-orbicular, +4 
inch long, glabrous, regularly and deeply crenate, obtuse and rounded at 
* The numbers in this paper attached to both Orders and Genera are those of the 
“ Handbook of the New Zealand Flora.” 
