Colenso. — ■Descriptions of new Indigenous Plants. 325 



lanceolate acute, sub-dimidiate, sub-falcate, entire with 2-3 cuts or slight 

 notches on each side near apex, thickish, opaque, under a lens thickly 

 studded with very minute white spots on the under surface, somewhat con- 

 cave, veins obscure, midrib strong, not keeled, petiolate, petioles 1 line long, 

 slender. Flowers, sub-terminal and sub-capitate in corymbs much longer 

 than the leaves, on 2-6 axillary peduncles ^ inch long, peduncles and 

 pedicels pubescent, each peduncle or rhachis bearing 6-8 branched-pedun- 

 cles, each branched peduncle with 8-10 pedicels 1 line long, all bracteolate, 

 bracteoles light-green, sessile, rather large, ovate-acuminate, obtuse and 

 slightly ciliate. Sepals 3, about 1 line long, rather longer than tube, glab- 

 rous, very obtuse, margined, ciliate, upper sepal large and bifid. Corolla 

 white with a faint tinge of light-blue, 4-lobed, spreading, 2J lines long, 3 

 lines broad, lobes ovate, obtuse, tube under 1 line long. Stamens, filaments, 

 and style equal, exserted, longer than corolla. Stigma simple. Anthers 

 rather large, light-blue. Capsule (immature) 2 lines long, more than twice 

 as long as the calyx, broadly elliptic, acute, flattish, glabrous, style persis- 

 tent, long. 



Hab. On the north end of Te Kaweka mountain range, near Napier. 

 Discovered by Mr. A. Hamilton, 1881. 



Obs. — This is another elegant shrubby species of this extensive genus, 

 so well represented in New Zealand, and one that is so plainly distinct as 

 not to be easily confounded with any other of our known and published 

 species ; its nearest relation is, I think, V. diosmafolia, a tall slender 

 northern species of widely different habit, and characters. I have little 

 doubt of this plant becoming, also, a favourite in gardens. 

 Class II. Monocotyledons. 

 Order I. OBCHIDE^E. 

 Genus 1. Earina, Lindley. 

 Earina quadrilobata, sp. nov. 



Plant, small, low, of densely compact growth. Flowering stems usually 

 short and sometimes bare of leaves, erect and pendulous, 6-10 in. long, 

 compressed, slender, woody, brittle, of a light brownish-white colour, irre- 

 gularly blotched and spotted with black. Leaves sub-erect, narrow, linear, 

 2-3 in. long, If line wide at broadest part near base, flat, acuminate, acute, 

 alternate, distant, sessile, clasping, glabrous, sub-coriaceous, dark green, 

 entire, margined with a white line which with the midrib are semi-trans- 

 lucent, peculiarly embossed or sub-keeled with a longitudinal impression (in 

 alto) 2 lines long on midrib lower side, f in. from apex. Flowers distant, 

 sub-distichous, nodding, in simple 5-6-flowered racemes or loose panicles, 

 each scape bearing 3-4 slender and distant racemes, each flower bracteolate, 

 bracteoles clasping, striated, obtuse with a point, or broadly sub-rhomboidal 



