KiEK. — On a revised Arrangement of N.Z. Species q/' Dacrydium. 383 



specimens £i-om alpine habitats look very different to that x^lant, fruited 

 specimens from low levels are un distinguishable. I have not had the 

 opportunity of examining male catkins of P. rhomboidalis, but beheve they 

 are longer and more slender than those of our plant. 



Art. LIII. — A revised Arrangement of the New Zealand Sioecies of Dacry- 

 dium, xcitli Descriptions of new Species. By T. Kikk, F.L.S. 



Plates XVIII.— XX. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2nd February, 1877.J 

 Amongst the Protean plants of New Zealand few genera are in a more 

 unsatisfactory condition than Dacrydium. The unisexual character of the 

 species, the difficulty of procming good flowering and fruiting specimens 

 from the same individuals, and the local and difficult habitats of several 

 forms, have led to great perplexity, through the combination of distinct 

 species and a want of precision in the limitation of those admitted. It is 

 hoped that the present paper will tend to remove these difficulties, although 

 it must not be looked upon as final, since we may fairly expect that other 

 species will yet be discovered in the mountain districts of the central 

 portion of the North Island and the south-western portion of the South. 



Although my attention has been specially directed to this genus for the 

 last ten years, it was not until the commencement of last year that I was 

 able to solve the difficulties by which it was surrounded, and to lay down 

 more precise limitation for the recognized species with descriptions of 

 others new to science. I am pleased to say that Sir Joseph Hooker and 

 myself have independently arrived at the same conclusions, except with 

 regard to a single species, and I take the opportunity of expressing my 

 thanks to him for his valued notes, and for the opportunity so kindly 

 afforded me of comparing several of the original specimens of Bidwill, 

 Lyall, Colenso, and Hector, with my own collections. 



The New Zealand species form two natural groups — the first distin- 

 guished by the young pla^'its possessing terete spreading leaves which pass 

 by very gradual transition, sometimes extending over a number of years, 

 into the abbreviated and closely imbricated condition, characteristic of the 

 mature state. With one exception all the species of this group are charac- 

 terized by solitary fruit. 



In the second group the young plants exliibit flat, linear, spreading leaves, 

 which for the most part pass abruptly into the quadrifariously imbricated 

 leaves characteristic of the fruiting state : leaves of an intermediate kind are 



