S46 TransactioTis. — Botany, 



A most minute plant, and easily overlooked, although probably abun- 

 dant in wet places at high altitudes. 



Dracophyllum nmscoides, Hook. fil. 

 Handb. N.Z. Flora, vol. i., p. 183. 



A small, rigid, densely-branched shrub. Branches closely covered with 

 minute, imbricate leaves. Leaves J5 inch long, ovate, obtuse when young, 

 inflexed and subulate at top when mature, coriaceous, sheathing at base, 

 and minutely ciliate. Flower white, ^ inch long, terminal, sepals ovate, as 

 long as corolla tube. 



Hab. — South Island: Mount Alta and Hector's Col, 5-7,000 feet alt. — 

 Hector and Buchanan, 1862 ; Buchanan and McKay, 1881. 



Plate XXVI., fig. 3, plant nat. size ; 3 a, flowering branch, enlarged ; 

 3 b, sepal ; 3 c, leaf, showing the early ovate and later subulate forms. 



This beautiful little alpine is worthy of attention as an ornamental 

 plant for gardens, and probably under cultivation the close habit of growth 

 might open out and produce a finer shrub. 



Acij^hylla hectori, Buch., n.s. 



Stem 10-12 inches high, deeply grooved. Leaves all radical, sheathing 

 near the root and forming a circle 6-8 inches diameter, pinnate, 3-5-foliate, 

 leaflets 1^-2^ inches long, i- 1 inch broad, rigid, smooth, margins finely 

 serrulate, pungent, striate. Male inflorescence racemose, occupying three- 

 quarters of the stem, and with a 3-foliate stem-leaf at the base. Flowering 

 bracts with large sheaths, 1-3 inches long, 3-foliate, soft, and membraneous, 

 each bract enfolding a small spike of male flowers. Female racemes rigid, 

 occupying less than the half of the stem, bracts i— 1 inch long, 3-foliolate, 

 sheaths very small. Carpels 3-5 -winged. 



Allied to Aciphylla colensoi, and may be considered as its alpine repre- 

 sentative. Collected near Hector's Col on the Mount Aspuing range, 

 at 5,000 feet alt. Named in compliment to Dr. Hector, who accomplished 

 the passage in 1862. 



Plate XXVIL, fig. 1, spike of male plant; 1', portion enlarged; 2, 

 female plant in seed; 3, seed, front view ; 3', seed, side view. 



Note on the genus Aciphylla. — 'At the period of Dr. Hector's explorations 

 in the Wanaka District in 1862, the valley of the Matukituki Eiver was, on 

 account of the prevalence of spear-grass (chiefly Aciphylla colemoi) impassable 

 except by frequently crossing the river, which latter was often dangerous ; 

 at the present date scarcely a plant is to be seen, frequent burnings, and 

 stocking the country with cattle and sheep, having destroyed the plants. 



The alpine forms of the genus may still be collected in abundance, those 

 collected at this time were Aciphylla monroi, A. lyallii, and A. dobsonii, the 

 latter a very rare plant, being found only on Station Mountain, Lake Ohou, 

 at an alt. of 6,000 feet where only a few plants were seen. 



