KiKK. — Descriptions of Xew Plants. 419 



The thick, fleshy, u-regularly-lobed and imbricated fronds of this 

 common plant are so well known to every New Zealand botanist as 

 to need no description. Fructification springmg from cavities in the sub- 

 stance of the frond, tumid on the under surface, and opening by slits on 

 the upper surface near the margin. Peduncles 1-3 in each cavity, 1-1 ^ 

 inch long, succulent, white or yellowish, the base of each surrounded by a 

 delicate, stipitate, tubular perianth f-^ inch long, with a two-lobed mouth, 

 the lobes jagged or rarely lacerate, not extending beyond the cavity. 

 Peduncle consisting of two separate tubes closely fitting one within the 

 other. Capsule oblong-cylindrical, coriaceous, faintly striated, sub-erect 

 or inclined, dehiscing longitudinally, at length expanding into an oblong 

 flattened valve coarsely striated within. Columella 0. Elaters and spores 

 forming a densely matted dark-brown mass; elaters vermiform, with 

 intersecting spiral bands ; spores globose, minutely punctate. 



The capsule is at first erect, but becomes inclined or even horizontal in 

 dehiscence. 



Our plant is frequently found growing in situations where it must be 

 submerged for the greater part of the year ; in places of this kind its fronds 

 are perfectly flat and less coriaceous than in the usual state. 



The fruiting condition appears to be remarkably local ; my specimens 

 were obtained ft'om the head of a gully running into the Kaiwarawara. 

 Mr. Buchanan has collected fruiting specimens at Wainuiomata ; these are 

 the only instances of its being found in fruit, since its discovery, most pro- 

 bably in the South Island, by Forster more than a century ago. It appears 

 to fruit only duiing the spruig months, October and November. 



Art. LXIV. — Descriptions of New Plants. By T. Kirk, F.L.S. 

 [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2nd February, 1878.] 



Umbellifer^. 



Pozoa pallida. 

 Glabrous, rhizome stout creeping, with crowded rosulate leaves at the apex 

 and giving off scions. Leaves ^-f inch in diameter, 3-foliolate, leaflets 

 sessile, cuneate or obovate-cuneate, 3-6-lobed at the tips, coriaceous, 

 shining, pale green ; petioles 1-3 inches long, stijjules lacerate. Peduncles 

 shorter than the leaves bearing a single terminal umbel, or with two or 

 more umbels each successively given off from the one next below it; 

 umbels with a petioled tripartite or lobed leaf at the base, 4-8-flowered ; 



