﻿SOME NEW ZEALAND MOSSES AND HEPATIC! 



time in New Zealand. But tliig seemed unlikely, and further 

 investigation was advisable, and the result was the finding that 

 some of the leaves were possessed of a thin half-length nerve, 

 while in others it was more developed, till a series was obtained 

 leading up to the ordinary D. Billardieri, of which in fact the 

 present plant appears to be nothing more than a slight variety, in 

 some of whose leaves, from some cause not readily to be explained, 

 the usual nerve has been wholly or partially undeveloped. 



The other is a much more difficult riddle to solve. It is a 

 barren tuft of some thirty or forty stems, growing together in a 

 Bryum-like manner, with foliage of a light greyish green colour, 

 and densely matted below with copious brown radicles ; the leaves 

 are imbricated, appressed and slightly contorted in the dry state, 

 oval-oblong in form, very obtuse at the apex and strongly recurved 

 in the margins; the midrib is strong, broad at base, gradually 

 narrowing upwards and excurrent into a whitish hyaline hair-point. 

 The lower cells are large oblong-rectangular, those above irregu- 

 larly hexagonal, each containing a large single granule. These 

 bodies are the most curious feature of the moss, and totally unlike 

 anything found in any other known to me by specimen or descrip- 

 tion. The general aspect of the present tuft reminds one of 

 Tortula, of Bryum, Funaria, and others, but the more closely it is 

 examined the less the resemblance ; the singular leaf structure 

 differs from all of them, and it is even impossible to say to what it 

 is most nearly related ; perhaps the last named. There is neither 

 flower nor fruit, and in their absence the difficulty is of course in- 

 creased, while the regretted death of the collector leaves little hope 

 of obtaining a further supply very soon. 



For the present the following name and description may serve 

 to keep him in memory, and to distinguish his remarkable find. 

 Some day we may perhaps obtain more light on this mysterious 

 stranger. 



Helmsia collina. — Csespites condensati circulares, superne 

 subcani vel glauco-virides, inferne radiculis atro-fuscis vel ferru- 

 gineis intertexti. Folia dense imbricata, sicca appressa ac leniter 

 contorta, ovali-oblonga, obtusissima, marginibus valde recurvata; 

 costa valida, basi lata, superne sensim angustata, in pilum hyalinum 

 albidum contortum excurrente ; reti magno laxo, inferne rect- 

 angulari-oblongo, hyalino, inani ; superne hexagono, granulas 

 magnas, angulares, polymorphas continente. 



Paparoa Ranges, New Zealand. Legit E. Helms circa 1888 ; 

 misit T. Kirk, 1893. 



Hepatice. 



Jungermannia flemcavlis Nees. Flora N. Zel. ii. 128 ! Handb. 

 504. 



Plagiochila pleurota Hook. f. & Tayl. ; Flora Antarct. 149 ; 

 Handb. 505. — P. circinalis Lehm. ; Flora Antarct. i. 348 ; Handb. 

 504. — P. Stephensoniana Mitt. Flora Nov. Zel. ii. 133 ; Handb. 505. 

 — P. gigantea Lindenb. Flora N.Z. ii. 133; Handb. 505. — P. ramo- 

 swrima Lindenb.; Flora N.Z. ii. 183; Handb. 505.— P. Arbuscula 

 L. & L. Mingled with Dicmn. Billardi^i.—P. microdictyon Mitt. 



