324 Transactions. — Botany. 



young branclilets semi-compressed, always dark red, very minutely roughish 

 but not villous. Leaves opposite, decussate, distant, 6-8 lines apart, l-l£ 

 inch long, 6-8 lines broad, petiolate, broadly-lanceolate elliptic and sub- 

 rhomboidal, obtuse, very coriaceous ; colour a lively light green, both 

 surfaces covered with very fine pale spots, midrib and veins obscure, primary 

 veins opposite, veinlets reticulated, margins rough and coloured red with 

 minute tubercles. Flowers light-vermillion red, single, suberect, expanding 

 freely, 1^ inch long, axillary on short stout peduncles. Calyx-tube conical, 

 2 lines long, limb very shallow, with 4 small teeth at the angles of the 

 corolla. Corolla 4-angled at base and throughout two-thirds of its length, 

 up to the insertion of the filaments, broadest at base, gradually contracted 

 upwards, terete and swollen above. Petals somewhat linear, free, semi- 

 transparent, 2 lines broad at base, constricted at one-third of length from 

 apex and there 1 line broad, obtuse and subspathulate at top, and grooved 

 within for the anther. Filaments stout, flat. Anthers long, linear. Style 

 very long, longer than anthers, straight. Stigma dark red, globular, slightly 

 cleft, and finely papillose. 



Hub. Parasitical on Fagus solandri (and other trees), Forty-mile Bush, 

 near Norsewood, Hawke's Bay district, North Island ; flowering in Novem- 

 ber, 1876-1882 : W.C. 



Obs. I. — This is a fine bushy species, very full of branches, leaves, and 

 flowers. It extends 5-6 feet each way in front from the tree in which it 

 grows, and sometimes runs 9-10 feet in length, clasping the tree right 

 round in several places, and thus appearing as if it were composed of two 

 or three separate plants. Its leaves are usually disfigured with small round 

 and raised hard swellings, which lumps appear on both sides, always punc- 

 tured on the one side ; sometimes 2-6-8 on a single leaf, the work of some 

 insect. 



Obs. II. — This plant has been long known to me, but, I fear, too often 

 confounded with L. tetrapetalus (from my not having before seen it in its 

 proper season of flowering, and through lack of close examination), to which 

 species it is nearly allied, and in many respects closely resembles. Dissec- 

 tion, however, reveals its important differential characters, as given 

 above. 



Order LIII. SCEOPHULABINE^l. 

 Genus 7. Veronica, Linn. 

 Veronica trisepala, sp. nov. 



Shrub small, glabrous, 2-3 feet high, with habit of V. buxifolia. Branch- 

 lets pubescent, transversely and regularly scarred 2 lines apart ; hairs very 

 thick and short, reddish, patent; bark light-reddish-brown. Leaves opposite, 

 decussate, 4-8 lines long, 1| line broad, glabrous, not shining, oblong- 



