398 Tranmctions.- — Botany. 



H. B. Kii-k ; and I bad the pleasure of collecting it in a third locality, near 

 this city. The following are its chief characteristics : — 



Eoot of stout fleshy fibres. Leaves all radical, tufted, oblong or obo- 

 vate, obtuse, narrowed at the base into a short broad petiole, obscurely 

 toothed or crenate; hirsute or pubescent. Scapes numerous, stout, grooved, 

 hu'sute, longer than the leaves, usually constricted immediately beneath the 

 head, ebracteate, or with a short leafy bract. Head 2-3 lines in diameter; 

 involucral scales obtuse, with membranous margins. Eay florets scarcely 

 longer than the involucral scales, always (?) tubidar. Achenes of the ray 

 flattened, glabrous, narrowed at both ends ; of the disc abortive. 



This species approaches L. lanata, Hook, f., in its general characters, 

 but the heads are even less conspicuous than m that species, the florets 

 being much shorter and the scapes very stout. 



Our plant differs from Australian specimens in the .scapes being much 

 longer than the leaves, and in the ray florets being always tubular, at least 

 in all the specimens I have examined. Bentham describes the ray florets of 

 the Australian plant as "tubular in bud, but opening out into a short concave 

 2 or 3-toothed ligula." I have not met with any trace of a hgula, but it should 

 be mentioned that all my specimens were collected very early in the season. 



It is the Solenogyne bellioides, Sond., of Baron von Mueller's Illustrations 

 of the Plants of Victoria, t. 37. 



Vittadinia australis, A. Eich., var. dissecta. 



In April, 1873, I observed this plant in great abundance by roadsides 

 and in rocky and waste places about Nelson, but during recent visits have 

 been unable to obtain a single specimen even, the plant having apparently 

 died out in the localities where I had gathered it. Two years ago, however, 

 Mr. Cheeseman discovered it in great profusion in a new locahty on the 

 coast north of Nelson, extending towards D'Urville Island, and last month 

 I collected it in the North Island, at the shingly mouths of small streams 

 discharging into Palliser Bay, between Watirangi and Cape Palliser. It is 

 doubtless an introduced plant, but will probably be able to maintain its 

 position on loose soils and amongst shingle. 



It attains the height of from one to two feet, and differs from the typical 

 V. aiistralis in its strict, erect habit ; tripartite leaves with narrow 3-lobed 

 segments, and densely-crowded, corymbose flowers, with more or less 

 revolute purple ray florets. 



Altogether it presents a widely different appearance from the typical 

 form, and should, I think, be regarded as specifically distmct. 

 Mesembryanthenmm aquilaterale, Haw. 



During a visit to Castle Point, I had the pleasure of collecting this 

 species, and now record its occurrence as an addition to our Flora, At first 



