338 Transactions. — Botany. 



Genus 41.* Monoclea, Hook. 

 Monoclea hookeri, sp. nov. 



Plant procumbent, frondose, imbricated, very flat, thick, succulent, 

 densely rooting all over lower surface ; colour grass-green. Fronds very 

 large, spreading, plane, apparently continuous, glabrous, hairy below and 

 at the edges ; lobes unequal, of all sizes and shapes, often largely crenulate 

 and subrotund at margins, which are sinuate and undulate. Calyx none. 

 Calyptra (or perianth) membranaceous, greenish-white and transparent, 

 tubular, 4 lines long, 1 line broad, slightly bilobed and jagged at tips, lips 

 very obtuse, wholly included within the cavity of the frond, which is near 

 the margin on the upper surface, where it remains enclosing the base of the 

 seta. Seta 1J inch long, 1 line broad, linear, terete, stout, succulent, 

 glabrous, whitish, erect from frond, but the part included (with the calyptra) 

 is horizontal, sometimes 1, 2, or 3 issue from the same simple fissure, and 

 are disposed closely together flat and parallel within the frond, without any 

 prominent ridgy markings on its surface to denote them. Caimde, terete, 

 at first (before bursting) linear-oblong, obtuse, erect, 2 lines long, dark 

 brown, smooth, glossy, without striae or markings, bursting below longi- 

 tudinally, when the margins become revolute, and the spores and spiral 

 filaments show themselves in a small floccose woollylike mass, their colour 

 a dirty light-ash-yellow ; afterwards the empty capsule spreads out and 

 assumes an oval figure, the texture being very finely reticulated. 



Spores and elaters are numerous, closely resembling those of M. forsteri. 

 I could not detect any vestige of a columella, the want of which (as first 

 shown by the founder of the genus, Sir W. J. Hooker) has been by some 

 disputed. 



Hob. In damp forests on the ground, on the immediate margins and 

 sides of streamlets, near Norsewood, Hawke's Bay, 1882 : W.C. 



Obs. — This plant is very common throughout New Zealand — almost sure 

 to be met with on the borders of watercourses and springs in shady low-lying 

 woods — but very rarely in fruit. Indeed I — who have known it in its barren 

 state for nearly fifty years, and have very often diligently sought its fructi- 

 fication — never saw its fruit before I found these specimens ; and I was 

 mightily pleased at my discovery. Although I gained several fruiting 

 specimens, yet these all grew in one small spot (and, apparently, from one 

 plant), I could not find any more though there were feet, or yards, of this 

 plant luxuriantly growing there. I had always supposed this plant to be 



* This genus does not appear in the " Flora N.Z.," neither in the " Handbook Flora 

 N.Z." (as it was not known to inhabit New Zealand). I have, therefore, numbered it to 

 come after Riccia (Gen. 40), the last genus of Sir J. D. Hooker's Hepaticce ; although I 

 am aware that the authors of the Syn. Hepaticorum place it before Marchantia, 



