272 Transactions. — Botany. 



This species has very close affinity with U. laxi flora, mihi. It differs in 

 habit, in the shorter, more uniform, stouter and less lax-flowered spikelets, 

 and in the size of the utricle. Intermediate forms may connect these two 

 species into one variable series. This appears to form part of U. caspitosa 

 of the Handbook. 



3. Uncinia purpurata, n. sp. 



A species of sparse growth. 



Leaves much shorter than the fullgrown culms, grassy, concave or flat, 

 Y^-j-g inch wide, slightly scabrid. 



Culms twice as long as the leaves or more, rather slender, wiry, terete, 

 smooth. 



Spikelets f-lf inch long ; bract none. 



Glumes closely imbricate, broadly ovate, obtuse or subacute, dark brown 

 with white margins, strongly keeled, shorter than the utricle. Utricle 

 ovate-oblong, plano-convex, tapering above, dark brown but paler at the 

 top, with numerous faint veins ; bristle incurved as long as the utricle. 



Hab. Signal Hill, Dunedin. 



Var. robusta. Leaves as long as the culms, flat, scabrid. 



Culms stouter, shorter, slightly scabrid towards the top. 



Spikelets with male portion shorter, very variable in length |-2^ inches. 



Glumes and utricle as in typical form. 



Hab. Maungatua, Taieri. 



This very distinct species stands close to U. rubra, Boott. The forms 

 which I have placed under var. robusta differ widely in habit from the typical 

 form of the species, and may yet prove sufficiently distinct to be worthy of 

 specific rank, In the meantime, relying on the likeness of the spikelets, I 

 prefer to regard them as a variety of the species described. 



Art. XXXI. — Description of a new Species of Carmichgelia, with Notes on 

 the Distribution of the Species native to Otago. By D. Peteie, M.A. 

 [Read before the Otago Institute, 12th August, 1884.] 

 Carmichalia compacta, n. sp. 



A low dense much-branched somewhat spreading shrub, rarely exceeding 4 



feet in height, the ends of the stouter branches giving off a profusion of 



slender wiry terete leafless grooved twigs. 

 Leaves not seen. 

 Flowers abundant, \ inch long, in compact glabrous 3-8-flowered 



racemes, the peduncles 4 or 5 times the length of the calyx, springing from 



the axil of a subulate scale, and bearing two acuminate bracts a little below 



the calyx. 



