Enys. — On Botrycbiuru lunaria in Xeu- Zealand. 363 



and smooth, sessile, perfectly free all round, reddish-brown, darker towards 

 the top, and there thickly covered with minute black dots, having a de- 

 pressed orbicular coronula 2 lines diameter, roughish, slightly rising in the 

 centre with a small plain ostiole. 



Rah. On ground, forests near Norsewood, 1883 : W.C. 



Obs. — A species having some affinity with G. archeri, Berk., a Tas- 

 manian species. 

 Geaster ajfinis, sp. nov. 



Outer peridium sessile, S\ inches diameter expanded, flat on the ground, 

 marked with 2-3 concentric rings on outside near base, thin, light brown 

 and smooth outside, divided into 8 narrow deltoid-acuminate acute segments, 

 cut down nearly to the base, segments roughish and darker-brown inside ; 

 inner peridium 1± inches. diameter, globular, light tawny, sessile, free to base, 

 with a ridge running round the inside, about 3 lines below bases of segments, 

 at top a small coronula, 3 lines diameter, subplicate, mouth elevated, large, 

 conical, more than 1 line diameter, laciniated. 



Hab. On ground, elevated woods, at Grlenross, 1883 : Mr. D. P. Bal- 

 four ; and other places near Napier, 1883 : W.C. 



Obs. — A sx^ecies near to G. tenuipes, Berk., — also a Tasmanian species. 



Aet. XXVII. — On the Occurrence of the Fern Botrychium lunaria, Sw., 

 (Moonwort) in New Zealand. By J. D. Enys. 

 [Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd May, 1883.] 

 On 15th November, 1882, I was engaged laying out the line of a wire 

 fence across a piece of ground of a peaty nature resting on a stiff clay about 

 2,600 feet above the sea, when I detected the first specimen of this well-known 

 fern. After a close search I failed in finding a second, indeed the first 

 specimen had only just shown up. About a week later I found a number 

 more showing up in two spots in the same neighbourhood ; a month or so 

 later not one remained, this may partly be owing to the dry season. 



I have copied out the description from Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis 

 Filicum " (1868), as New Zealand fern collectors may not have access to a 

 description of this fern. 



" B. lunaria, Sw., st. stout, 1-4 inches; sterile segm. sessile or nearly so, 

 1-3 inches long, \-\ inch broad, not much broader at the base than the 

 middle, cut down to a flattened rhachis into several distinct, close, entire, or 



