800 Transactions.— Botany. 
This is nearest to L. filifolium, but differs in its stemless habit, smaller 
size, more numerous leaves with much more copious divisions, and in the 
shorter peduncles. 
Hab.—Grassy slopes on Mount Arthur, Nelson, alt. 4,000-5,500 feet. 
3. Poranthera alpina, n.sp. 
Small, perfectly glabrous, 2-4 inches high. Branches numerous, decum- 
bent or suberect, usually densely compacted and interlaced, hard and woody 
at the base, scarred. Leaves opposite, all uniform, crowded, sessile or nar- 
rowed into a very short petiole, linear-oblong, quite entire, obtuse, 4-4 inch 
long, smooth and veinless above, margins usually so much revolute as to 
conceal the whole of the under surface except the very thick and prominent 
midrib. Stipules large, triangular, entire or very slightly jagged, persistent. 
Flowers apparently dicecious ; minute, greenish-white, shortly pedicelled, 
solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, and thus forming short leafy ter- 
minal heads. Males :—Labyx divided nearly to the base into 5 oblong 
segments. Petals wanting in all the flowers examined. Stamens 5, 
alternating with 5 rounded green glands.. Females :—Labyx, etc., aS i 
the males. Stamens, 0; ovary large, rounded, 6-lobed, 3-celled, ovules 
2 in each cell. Capsule globose-depressed, apparently splitting into 3 
cocci, but not seen perfectly ripe. 
Hab.—Rocky ledges on Mount Arthur, Nelson, ascending to within a 
short distance of the summit of the mountain. Alt. 6,000ft. : 
This is a most unexpected and interesting addition to our Flora, and is 
perfectly distinct from any of the Australian species. The only other plant 
of the genus known from New Zealand is P. microphylla, Brong., which I 
i in the Nelson district in 1878.* 
4. Triglochin palustre, L. : 
_ In January, 1880, when in the Canterbury mountains with 
my friend Mr. J. D. Enys, numerous specimens of a plant clearly referable 
to this species were collected, by a small tributary of the Broken river, at 20 
altitude of about 2,500ft., and Mr. Enys has since met with it in several 
localities in the vicinity of the first station. '. palustre is a common plant 
in the northern hemisphere, being found throughout Northern and Central 
Europe, North Africa, North Asia to the Himalaya Mountains, and im 
North America. In the South Temperate Zone it has as yet only been 
recorded from Chili. 7. palustre may be distinguished from T. triandrum, 
our only other native species, by its much larger size (some of my Canter- 
bury specimens are nearly two feet high), stouter scape, more 
flowers, and particularly by the line es ee 
Cs 
* “Trans, N.Z. Inst.,” vol. xi., p. 432. os 
