Cotenso.—On the Botany of New Zealand. 339 
Order V. TYPHACEA. 
Genus 2. Sparganium, Linn. 
Sparganium angustifolium, R. Brown. 
Hab. Hawke’s Bay, low watery places, sides of streams, ete.: W.C. 
Petane, near Napier, 1882: Mr. A. Hamilton. 
Obs.—Agreeing closely with the Australian species; also found in the nor- 
thern parts of the North Island, and long confounded with S. simplex, Huds. 
Orper VII. LILIACEZ. 
Genus 4. Dianella, Lamarck. 
Dianella nigra, sp. nov. 
Plant a diffuse herb; leaves drooping, subrigid when old, 8 feet long, 
8 lines broad, linear acuminate and very acute, keeled, hooked on margins 
and keel throughout, glabrous, glossy above, striate below, finely and regu- 
larly nerved, margins slightly recurved, light-green, bases pink-red, and so 
bracts. Scapes, 3 feet 9 inches to 4 feet 8 inches long, stem below dark- 
green, subterete, 1-2 foliaceous bracts below panicle ; panicle proper, 2 feet 
to 2 feet 8 inches long, narrow oblong, slender and very loose, black-purple ; 
main branchlets few, 4-10 inches long, wiry, filiform, very distant on 
rhachis, 4-6-10 inches apart, tough, each divided into 2-4 long slender 
sub-branchlets, all straight and suberect, each sub-branchlet with 4—5 
scattered flowers at top on long pedicels; pedicels 1-2 inches long, spread- 
ing ; ultimate bracts small, linear, obtuse, 1-2 lines long, generally situated 
2-4 lines below junction of subpeduncle. Perianth (unfolded) dark-purple 
almost black, linear-oblong obtuse under 2 lines long, expanded 34 lines 
diameter, patent not reflexed, segments with very dark distinet nerves, 
margins whitish ; three outer segments 5—nerved, sublinear-ovate, three inner 
segments 8-nerved, broader and more obtuse at apex.  4nthers linear- 
oblong obtuse, light-yellow, scarcely 1 line long; strume about same length, 
a little thicker, thickest upwards, dark orange-yellow ; /ilaments below much 
longer, very slender, bent and crumpled, white; style a little longer than 
stamens, slightly curved ; stiyma capitate, papillose. Ovary subtriquetrous, 
rotund at apex, glabrous, 4, or so, inferior, 
Hab. Dry hillsides among under shrubs, forests near Matamau (S.), 
Waipawa County, 1882; flowering in December: W.C. 
Obs.—A peculiar looking species from its tall, large, and lax black 
panicle and very small star-like flowers, widely differing from our other 
only known N.Z. species, D. intermedia, which species is also said to be 
generally common in the S. Polynesian Islands, as Fiji, ete. [see Seemann, 
Bentham, etc.] I only detected two bushy diffuse plants or tussocks that 
had been browsed on by cattle in the past season; they bore, however, a 
quantity of new leaves, and a great number of scapes. 
