330 Transactions.— Botany. 
trifid leaflet, glabrous on both sides, sub-coriaceous, entire, dark-green 
margined with a deep black line; petioles glabrous, opposite, 1-2 inches 
long ; flowers opposite, axillary, solitary, sometimes (though rarely) two 
from one axil, and very rarely three pedicelled on one peduncle ; peduncle 
4-13 inches long, shorter than petioles, tri- and quadri-bracteolate, slightly 
pubescent below, densely so from uppermost pair of bracteoles ; bracteoles 
free, connate, cup-shaped, pubescent, very obtuse and rotund at apices, 
obsoletely veined, each pair increasing in size upwards, the largest pair 
nearest the flower; sepals four, dull light-purple, thin, slightly spreading 
and revolute, 3 rarely 4 lines long, ovate, oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, 
glabrous within, silky pubescent without, ciliated, finely and obscurely 
veined longitudinally with 4-5 veins; male flowers on peduncles usually 
shorter than those bearing the hermaphrodite ones, and with only three 
pairs of bracteoles; anthers 25-28, elliptic, obtuse, light yellow; jilaments 
broadly linear-lanceolate, flat, dark purple, outer shorter than sepals, inner 
sub-sessile ; hermaphrodite flowers with only four stamens; pistils white, 
silky, very glossy at first, a little longer than sepals, glabrous, curved and 
clubbed at points; achenes 22-24, capitate, sessile, ovate, subsetose with 
short white hairs ; tails very hairy, 8-9 lines long. 
Hab.—In low-lying marshy spots, Hawke’s Bay, $.W. and S. side. 
This little plant has long been imperfectly known, no doubt partly owing 
to its small size (when compared with its indigenous congeners), to its want 
of striking colours, to its lowly growth, and to its peculiar habitat—hidden 
among the rank vegetation of marshes and on the edges of watery places, 
and not unfrequently springing from within a large tuft of Carex virgata. I 
first met with it so long back as 1847, on the banks of the Lake Rotoatara, 
near Te Aute, but my specimens then were incomplete. Subsequently (1872) 
it was detected by Mr. Sturm in the low ground between the Ngaruroro and 
Tukituki rivers, near Clive. Mr. Sturm also removed plants to his nurse 
ries in hopes of cultivating them, but failed. Last year (1880) it was ae 
found by Mr. oe in similar Aging near Petane; from him I have 
much more regular in size and oniline than in the male plant, each le 
| meciisaics cacan 4-10 lines long, os tees ee asi 
