338 Transactions.— Botany. 
Genus 41.* Monoclea, Hook. 
Monoclea hookeri, sp. nov. 
Plant procumbent, frondose, imbricated, very flat, thick, succulent, 
densely rooting all over lower surface; colour grass-green. Fronds very 
large, spreading, plane, apparently continuous, glabrous, hairy below and 
at the edges ; lobes unequal, of all sizes and shapes, often largely crenulate 
and subrotund at margins, which are sinuate and undulate. Calyx none. 
Calyptra (or perianth) membranaceous, greenish-white and transparent, 
tubular, 4 lines long, 1 line broad, slightly bilobed and jagged at tips, lips 
very obtuse, wholly included within the cavity of the frond, which is near 
the margin on the upper surface, where it remains enclosing the base of the 
seta. Seta li inch long, 1 line broad, linear, terete, stout, succulent, 
glabrous, whitish, erect from frond, but the part included (with the calyptra) 
is horizontal, sometimes 1, 2, or 8 issue from the same simple fissure, and 
are disposed closely together flat and parallel within the frond, without any 
prominent ridgy markings on its surface to denote them. Capsule, terete, 
at first (before bursting) linear-oblong, obtuse, erect, 2 lines long, dark 
brown, smooth, glossy, without strie or markings, bursting below longi- 
tudinally, when the margins become revolute, and the spores and spiral 
filaments show themselves in a small floccose woollylike mass, their colour 
a dirty light-ash-yellow ; afterwards the empty capsule spreads out and 
assumes an oval figure, the texture being very finely reticulated. 
Spores and elaters are numerous, closely resembling those of M. forsteri. 
I could not detect any vestige of a columella, the want of which (as first 
shown by the founder of the genus, Sir W. J. Hooker) has been by some 
disputed. 
Hab. In damp forests on the ground, on the immediate margins and 
sides of streamlets, near Norsewood, Hawke's Bay, 1882: W.C. 
Obs.—This plant is very common throughout New Zealand—almost sure 
to be met with on the borders of watercourses and springs in shady low-lying 
woods—but very rarely in fruit. Indeed I—who have known it in its barren 
state for nearly fifty years, and have very often diligently sought its fructi- 
fieation—never saw its fruit before I found these specimens; and I was 
mightily pleased at my discovery. Although I gained several fruiting 
specimens, yet these all grew in one small spot (and, apparently, from one 
plant), I could not find any more though there were feet, or yards, of this 
plant luxuriantly growing there. I had always supposed this plant to be 
* This genus does not appear in the ** Flora N.Z.,” neither in the “ Handbook Flora 
N.Z.” (as it was not known to inhabit New Zealand). I have, therefore, numbered it to 
come after Riccia (Gen. 40), the last genus of Sir J. D. Hooker's Hepatice ; although I 
am aware that the authors of the Syn. H epaticorum place it before Marchantia, 
