» 
408 Transactions.—Botany. 
Prate XLI.—continued. 
No.21. Stigmatidium prominulum, sp. n. 
_(a.) Section of apothecium immersed in matrix x 38 diam. 
(b.) Lichen x 38 diam. 
(c.) Spores x 900 diam. 
No. 22, Verrucaria mycospora, sp. n. 
(a.) Section of apothecium x 38 diam. 
(b.) Spore x 900 diam 
No. 23. Verrucaria olivaceo-fusca, sp.n 
(a.) Section of n x 38 diam. 
(b.) Spore x 900 
No. 24. Odontrema AR Stirton. 
(a.) Section showing the closed parithecium recurved at base. 
(b.) Section showing parithecium open and epithecium expanded, a. and b. x 
8 diam. 
(c.) Four spores x 900 diam. 
Art. XLV.—Notice of the Discovery of the genus Rhagodia in New Zealand. 
T. F. Curerseman, F.L.S. 
[Read before the Auckland Institute, 4th June, 1883.] 
Tue genus Rhagodia was founded by the late Robert Brown, many years 
ago, on some half-dozen Australian plants agreeing in most characters with 
Chenopodium, but easily distinguished by the fleshy fruit. Several species 
have since been added, thirteen being described in the “ Flora Australi- 
ensis ;” but up to the present time all of these were supposed to be strictly 
confined to the Australian continent. Some little interest is therefore 
attached to the discovery of one of the species in New Zealand, both from 
its adding a new genus to our Flora, and from affording additional proof of | 
the intimate connection existing between the plants of the two countries. 
My specimens, which are clearly referable to Brown's Rhagodia nutans, the 
most widely distributed of the species, were obtained during a recent expe- 
dition of the Auckland Naturalists Field Club to the island of Otatau, 
which, with Rakino and some smaller islets, guards the entrance to the 
eastern passage to Auckland Harbour. The plant is abundant all round 
the shores of the island, and on some of the smaller adjacent ones, usually 
trailing over the rocks a little distance above high-water mark. The fol- 
lowing short description may be useful to those who have not access to the 
« Flora Australiensis " or other systematic works :— 
Rhagodia nutans, R. Br. Prodr. 408; Benth. Fl. Austral. 5, p. 156. A 
much branched, prostrate or procumbent, herbaceous plant. Branches 
6-18 inches long, sometimes hard and almost woody at the base. Leaves 
