888 Transactions.— Botany. 
4. Dacrydium laxifolium. 
Hook. fil., Lond. Journ. of Bot., IV., p. 143; Icones Plant., 815; Flora Nov. Zel., 
L, p. 234; Handbook of N.Z. Fl., p. 259; Carr., Conif., p. 487. 
A weak prostrate shrub, with trailing stems. Monecious; branches 
few, straggling, 8-15 inches long. Leaves on young plants, linear, curved, 
spreading, 3-3 inch long, gradually diminishing in size to ys inch, when 
they become slightly thickened and obtuse, at length laxly imbricated all 
round the branches, broadly ovate, keeled, j,—/. inch long. Male catkins 
terminal on short branchlets, 1-1 inch long, solitary elliptic, anthers 2. 
Female flowers solitary, terminal; nut conical, with a minute hooked 
apiculus. Involucral cup usually dry, sometimes dilated, fleshy, red. 
a. debilis—Branches few, straggling ; leaves rarely imbricating. 
B. compacta.—Branches numerous, short, strict; leaves imbricating ; 
plant forming a compact mass. 
North Island: a. Ruahine Range—Colenso ; Tongariro— Bidwill ! 
Colenso, Hector ! 
South Island : a. Nelson mountains—Bidwill ; Black Hills, Canterbury, 
4,000 feet—Sinclair and Haast!; high ground between Kumara and 
Marsden, Westland—T. Kirk; Upper Waimakariri and Arthur’s Pass, 
2,000-3,000 feet—J. D. Enys and T.K.; mountains above Lake Harris— 
T.K.; Otago—Hector and Buchanan. f. Otago—J. Buchanan, Herb. 
Mus. Col.! ; mountains above Lake Harris— T. K. 
The most diminutive pine known; fruiting specimens are sometimes 
only two inches high, usually from six inches to ten. South Island speci- 
mens are usually more or less glaucous, and rather more robust than those 
from Tongariro, collected by Dr. Hector. The latter moreover are destitute 
of imbrieated leaves. In southern specimens both forms of leaf may be 
found on the same branch, and cases of reversion are not uncommon. 
When the involueral eup is fleshy, the fruit bears a great resemblance to 
that of Podocarpus dacrydioides. 
At first sight the var. 8. compacta appears a totally different plant, but 
is connected with the type by intermediate forms. 
In his sketch of the botany of Otago, Mr. Buchanan remarks :—* This 
(D. laxifolium ) is a very doubtful species, being difficult to distinguish from 
D. colensoi,"—an opinion in which I cannot concur. To me it appears a 
most distinct plant, easily recognized in all stages. The difficulty expe- 
rienced by Mr. Buchanan and others has doubtless arisen from mixing 
small specimens of D. bidwillii with this species. 
5. Dacrydium bidwillii, n.s. 
Hook. fil., in litt. 
A diæcious shrub, erect, spreading, or prostrate. Leaves on young 
plants linear, obtuse, crowded, sessile, flat, ascending, }-} inch long; on 
