cares, una cum foliis diametro ¼ pollicis. Folia undique inserta, creberrime imbricata, numerosissima, stricta, erecto-patentia, linearia, obtusa, glaberriina, basi dilatata subvaginantia, marginibus tenuiter membranacea, medio subcontracta, dorso teretia, antice anguste plana vel canaliculata, ad apices globoso-incrassata, coriacea, crassa, dura, viridia, nirida, 2½–3 lin. longa; adulta inferne turgida, subampullacea, fusco-brunnea, suberosa, laxius imbricata. Flores ad apices ramulorum omnino sessiles, inter folia occlusi, limbo corollæ solummodo exserto, verosimiliter monoici, v. potius hermaphroditi. Calycis tubus brevis, turbinatus, v. floribus masculis obconicus, basi bibracteolatus; limbus 5–6-partitus, lobis linearibus obtusis erectis carnosis semiteretibus medio uninerviis, dorso infra apices pilosis, tubo corollæ æquilongis; bracteolæ oppositæ, segmentis calycinis simillimæ, basi remotæ. Corolla campanulata, albida; tubus latus, brevis, teres; limbus sub-bilabiatus, nempe inæqualiter 5-9-partitus, segmento unico v. duobus cæteris majoribus, rarius 4-partitus, segmento unico maximo 2-nervi, omnibus obovatis obtusis concavis planis v. ad faucem biglandulosis sinubusque incrassatis. Glandulæ epigynæ 2, oppositæ, semilunares, columnæ basin fere cingentes, crassæ et carnosæ, virides, antheris alternæ. Columna valida, erecta, ante anthesin protrusa, recta v. paululum inclinata, teres, superne incrassata. Antheræ 2, ad apicem columnæ sessiles, transversæ, majusculæ, reniformes, v. potius hypocrepiformes, divaricatæ, 1-loculares, connective carnoso in loculum porrecto costam elevatam formante, hinc spurie biloculares, linea curvata homotropa horizontaliter dehiscentes, valvis subcarnosis cellulosis purpureis inæqualibus, superiore majore fornicato sub-erecto post anthesin revoluto, inferiore horizontaliter porrecto marginibus lateralibus revolutis. Pollen opacum, 3-4-angulatum, flavo-viride, minutissime granulatum, angulis globoso-incrassatis, margine hyalino cinctum. Stylus floribus abortivis intra antheras occlusus, parvus, angustus, inconspicuus, convexus, v. brevissime bilobus; floribus fertilibus bilobus, lobis porrectis divaricatis antheris alternis uncinatis carnosis sursum glanduloso-plumosis. Ovarium flore masculo angulatum, pedicellum breve crassum simulans; flore fertili late obovatum, v. turbinatum, teres, carnosum, 1- rarius 2-loculare, ∞ ovulatum; ovulis parvis ascendentibus. Capsula immatura coriaceo-caraosa, 1-locularis. Semina semi-matura 6-8, obovata, ascendentia; testa membranacea, pallide brunnea; albumine carnoso. Embryo non visa.
Though abundant upon the hills of Lord Auckland and Campbell's Islands, this plant has not hitherto been brought from any part of New Zealand, neither from the mountains of the Northern Island, whence Mr. Bidwill and Mr. Colenso have sent home several of the more common Antarctic species, nor in the southern parts of that group, so well explored by Forster and Menzies. In general habit and appearance it bears a greater similarity to the Phyllachne uliginosa, Forst., than to its New Zealand congener, Forstera sedoides, L., although in the more essential characters it is much more nearly allied to the latter, the leaves being entire, the calycine segments equal and regular, and the epigynous glands much developed. In other respects, and especially in the mode of growth and form of the leaves, the present plant is so dissimilar from either, that I have ventured to place it under a separate sectional name, adopted in allusion to the incrassated apices of the leaves.
There are several points in the structure of the three plants above alluded to which seem to require some consideration; and having the opportunity of examining the flowers of all the species, I shall here offer a few remarks upon them, premising that, except in the case of F. clavigera, the specimens at my disposal were too few to allow of the full verification of the observations.
Linnæus first supposed Phyllachne to be monœcious (Suppl. Plant, p. 62), and Swartz (Schrader, Journ. fur Botanik, vol. i. p. 273, translated in Kœnig's Annals, vol. i. p. 286) follows Forster (Charact. Gen. t. 58) in supposing both this and F. sedifolia to be dioœcious. If, as I suspect, the only truly fertile flowers of F. clavigera are such as bear the uncinate plumose styles, that plant is certainly monœcious. Out of very many flowers examined, I only found such stigmata in two, both of which had abortive anthers, and they were moreover furnished with the only capsules in which I saw the immature seeds brown, and apparently fertile. Though there is a marked difference in the development of the apex of the style in the abortive flowers of this plant, it never, that I have seen, approaches the form it bears in the fertile flowers; at all other times it is exceedingly minute and probably variable in the lobes. Of the P. uliginosa I examined six flowers, only one of which
