Corxxso.— Descriptions of new Indigenous Plants. 887 
Hab. On clayey banks, ** Seventy-mile Bush," between Norsewood and 
Danneverke: W.C.; Glenross: Mr. D. P. Balfour ; (North Island): near 
Blenheim (South Island): Mr. F. Reader. 
Although at first sight this species may appear very near to S. hymeno- 
phyllum, S. flabellata and S. leptopoda, and also to my new species S. rugulosum, 
there are many points of distinction between them. It is a much smaller 
plant with a shorter stipe, each simple frond being also a perfect plant and 
not rising from a creeping rhizome,—which those four species severally do. 
It further differs from S. flabellata, S. leptopoda, and S. rugulosum, in having 
serrated margins ; and from S. hymenophyllum (which has serrated margins), 
in its serratures or teeth being much larger and closer, and in the divisions 
and outline of its frond, in the shape of its segments, their apices and 
sinuses, and most distinctly in its very minute areolation. Fortunately I 
have been able to examine a large suite of specimens, from Hawke's Bay 
district, and from Blenheim (South Island); and am also well acquainted 
with all the known New Zealand species of this genus. 
[Obs. In describing the fructification, I have added this word— 
* beneath "—for clearness; although it properly belongs to the generic 
description, which character, however, is not given in its place, in the 
short description of the genus in the ** Handbook," nor in the “ Flora 
of New Zealand." From my too closely following what is said in the. 
* Handbook,"—at the close, under ** Additions, Corrections," etc.,— a 
new arrangement of the New Zealand genera of Hepatice by Mitten," (p. 
752)—I fell into an error three years ago in describing, or rather in partly 
naming, another new and closely allied species, S. rugulosum, mihi;* as 
there the genus is shortly characterized by Mitten as having the ** Calyptra 
on upper side of often stipitate frond," which, of course, can only mean its 
ventral surface ; and Metzgeria, the next genus in sequence, is said by him 
to have the ** Calyptra on the under side of frond,” Sir J. D. Hooker, how- 
ever, in his ** Key to the Genera of the New Zealand Hepatice,” (** Hand- 
book," p. 500), gives as a character of this genus,—‘‘ Involucre a toothed 
scale dorsal:" and so again, in his “ Flora N.Z.,” vol. ii, p. 127,— 
Symphyogyna, Calyptra dorsal, etc.:" and in his ** Flora Tasmanie,”’ vol. ii., 
p. 239, he further says, under Symphyogyna rhizobola, (which had also been 
erroneously described by Dr. Taylor as having its “ Calyptra ventral,")— 
** the fructification is truly dorsal, as in all others of the genus.” And so 
it is stated in the ** Synopsis Hepaticorum" : but all this I did not fully know 
three years ago, until after I had described S. rugulosum, (although at that 
time I had doubts about it, as my paper will also show), being led astray, 
as I take it, by the latest published authority on Hepatica.] 
* “ Trans. N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xiii., p. 368. 
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