388 JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, 
Cotula integrifolia, Hook, f—This plant is not unfrequent in 
situations where water has stagnated, but which have become 
dry on the approach of summer. It varies greatly in stature 
and luxuriance; but a complete series may be traced from 
minute one-flowered forms with entire leaves, the plant less than 
1 inch in height, to the most luxuriant forms of C covonoptfolia. 
It can only be regarded as a transitory state of that species, and 
cannot take rank even as a trivial variety. British botanists are 
familiar with a similar state of Bidens cernua. 
Mentha australis, KR. Br—This species, remarkable even 
amongst its congeners for its powerful odour, occurs in great 
abundance in the Wairarapa, especially about Carterton ; but I 
fear that it must be regarded as an introduced plant. I observed 
it more or less continuously for three or four miles along the 
road, especially plentiful in ditches, but occurring also in the 
adjacent forest. 
It is an erect herb, with pale-green leaves and acutely angled 
stems ; the flowers are produced in great abundance in axillary 
false whorls, which may be pedicellate or sessile; calyx pub- 
escent or hairy, with long subulate teeth; the corolla-tube is 
small, scarcely exceeding the calyx in length, the mouth deeply 
2-lobed. Our plant fills the ditches by the roadside, where it 
attains the height of over 2 feet. In most places in the adjacent 
forest it is much smaller. It is called “turpentine” by the 
settlers. 
Polygonum pyostvatum, R. Br——A much-branched, prostrate, 
suffruticose plant, the branches rooting from beneath, in the pre- 
sent specimens 6in. to 1oin. high ; the young branches and leaves 
sparingly clothed with rather long white hairs. Leaves lanceo- 
late, narrowed in a short petiole Iin. long; stipules sheathing, 
ciliate. Spikes axillary or terminating short branchlets, sessile 
or shortly pedunculate, %in. long. Perianth small, becoming 
enlarged after flowering. Stamens 6. Nut convex, black, 
faintly reticulated. In several places by the Wairarapa Lake 
(H. B. Kirk). | 
Funcus pauciflorus, R. Br. (not of T. Kirk)—Although some- 
what local, this species occurs throughout the Colony, and is 
abundant in Stewart Island ; it is generally known to New Zea- 
land botanists as Funcus communis, var. hexagonus ; it is, however, 
distinct from that species, although of similar habit. 
The panicle is lax, consisting of a few slender branches ; 
flowers few in number, and small; perianth-segments acute ; 
stamens 6 ; capsule ovoid, faintly angled. The culms are usually 
slender, and the sheaths at the base very short. It appears to 
have been collected in New Zealand by Banks and Solander. 
Juncus brevifolius, T. Kirk (F. pauciflorus, T. Kirk, not of R. 
Brown).—In the Trans. N.Z. Inst., Vol. [X., p. 551, I described 
this small species under the name of 7. pauciflorus, but as that 
name had been applied by Brown to the plant mentioned above, 
I propose to term my plant #. brevifolius. It is distinguished 
from all New Zealand species by its rosulate leaves, slender, 
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