898 Transactions,— Botany. 
H. B. Kirk; and I had the pleasure of collecting it in a third locality, near 
this city. The following are its chief characteristics :— 
Root of stout fleshy fibres. Leaves all radical, tufted, oblong or obo- 
vate, obtuse, narrowed at the base into a short broad petiole, obscurely 
toothed or crenate; hirsute or pubescent. Scapes numerous, stout, grooved, 
hirsute, longer than the leaves, usually constricted immediately beneath the 
head, ebracteate, or with a short leafy bract. Head 2-8 lines in diameter; 
involucral scales obtuse, with membranous margins. Ray florets scarcely 
longer than the involucral scales, always (?) tubular. Achenes of the ray 
flattened, glabrous, narrowed at both ends; of the disc abortive. 
This species approaches L. lanata, Hook. f., in its general characters, 
but the heads are even less conspicuous than in that species, the florets 
being much shorter and the scapes very stout. 
Our plant differs from Australian specimens in the scapes being much 
longer than the leaves, and in the ray florets being always tubular, at least 
in all the specimens I have examined. Bentham describes the ray florets of 
the Australian plant as ** tubular in bud, but opening out into a short concave 
2 or 3-toothed ligula.” Ihave not met with any trace of a ligula, but it should 
be mentioned that all my specimens were collected very early in the season. 
It is the Solenogyne bellioides, Sond., of Baron von Müeller's Illustrations 
of the Plants of Victoria, t. 37. 
Vittadinia australis, A. Rich., var. dissecta. 
In April, 1873, I observed this plant in great abundance by roadsides 
and in rocky and waste places about Nelson, but during recent visits have 
been unable to obtain a single specimen even, the plant having apparently 
died out in the localities where I had gathered it. Two years ago, however, 
Mr. Cheeseman discovered it in great profusion in a new locality on the 
coast north of Nelson, extending towards D'Urville Island, and last month 
I collected it in the North Island, at the shingly mouths of small streams 
discharging into Palliser Bay, between Watirangi and Cape Palliser. It is 
doubtless an introduced plant, but will probably be able to maintain its 
position on loose soils and amongst shingle. 
It attains the height of from one to two feet, and differs from the typical 
V. australis in its strict, erect habit; tripartite leaves with narrow 3-lobed 
segments, and densely-crowded, corymbose flowers, with more or less 
revolute purple ray florets. 
Altogether it presents a widely different appearance from the typical 
form, and should, I think, be regarded as specifically distinct. 
Mesembryanthemum equilaterale, Haw. 
During a visit to Castle Point, I had the pleasure of collecting this 
species, and now record its occurrence as an addition to our Flora. At first 
