in New Zealand . 
297 
high, bearing a yellow terminal spike of fructification 
on a white stalk, with few linear-lanceolate patent 
radical leaves, and tuberculated root. At first glance I 
took it for a little Orckideous plant; but soon found 
what it was in reality. 1 have never met with the de¬ 
scription of any plant of that Natural Order, at all 
resembling this. On the high hills in this locality, I 
also detected an elegant and new species of Microtis, 
closely resembling M.Banksii, but differing in having a 
much shorter subulate fistulous leaf, and beautifully 
coloured perianth, as well as in its flowering in the 
autumn, that species only being seen in the spring. 
Here, in the forests on the hill tops, an enormous 
Fungus grows pendant from the larger branches of the 
large-leaved Fagus,* some of which measures a full 
yard across, and about eighteen inches in width and 
thickness. These, the natives call Putawa, and when 
dried use them for tinder, for which purpose they are 
excellent. Hitherto, I have only found them to grow 
on this tree. A fine plant of that truly sweet genus, 
Alseuosmia , A . Clinn., I also discovered in these dry 
hilly forests. This species f is, in appearance, very 
near A . linariifolia , A. Cunn., though differing much 
in habit. Its leaves, too, are longer, midrib and petioles 
villous, and its numerous flowers both axillary and ter¬ 
minal. It is the largest shrub I have yet seen of the 
genus; growing to the height of 5-7 feet In the forests, 
* Vide , mention made of this Fagus (a fine species discovered by 
W. C. in 1839), Note, p. 234. 
t A. Hookeria, MSS., W. C., ined. A. linariifolia, is thus des¬ 
cribed:—“ Foliis (uncialibus) lineari-lanceolatis acuminatis margine 
revolutis, floribus terminalibus solitariis aggregatisye, ramulis virgatis 
pubeseentibus.”— A. C. in Ann . Nat. Hist , vol. ii. p. 209. 
VOL. II. NO. IX. 2 P 
