Art. L.—Descriptions of New Native Plants.

Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Volume 27, 1894, Page 405

Art. L.—Descriptions of New Native Plants. By D. Petrie, M.A., F.L.S. [Read before the Otago Institute, 9th October, 1894.] 1. Carex hectori, sp. nov. A densely-tufted grassy species, about 3in. high. Leaves green, erect and rigid, 1/20in. broad, striate, concave above, convex below, not keeled, strongly serrate, with rather obtuse tips. Culms shorter than the leaves; spikelets 3 or 4, crowded, sessile, uppermost male only, the rest female; bracts long and leafy. Glumes broadly lanceolate, acuminate, not bifid, brown with pale (nearly white) midribs, almost as long as the utricles. Utricles subtriquetrous, fusiform, ⅛in. long, dark-brown, many-nerved, two prominent opposite greenish wing-like nerves being confluent with the slender bifid serrate beak. Style long, three-branched. Hab. Old Man Range (4,800ft.). This species is somewhat closely allied to C. uncifolia, Cheeseman, and less closely to C. decurtata of the same author. From C. uncifolia it differs in its shorter grassy rather rigid leaves, its tufted habit, and in the shape of the utricles, which are much longer, taper above and below, and end in a much longer slnder serrate bifid beak. The style of C. uncifolia is very short, and the undivided part hardly projects beyond the utricle. In the present plant the style is as long as the utricle, and the undivided part equals

the style-branches in length. I suspect that my plant from Clark's Diggings, referred to C. decurtata in Mr. Cheeseman's last paper (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiv., p. 414), is a young state of the present species. 2. Coprosma ramulosa, sp. nov. I propose this name for my Coprosma pubens, described in a paper communicated to the Otago Institute last year (see Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. xxiv., pp. 267 and 268). I now find that the latter name is preoccupied, having been chosen by the late Asa Gray to distinguish a species native to the Sandwich Islands. The flowers of this plant are still unknown. 3. Danthonia oreophila, sp. nov. I propose this name for my Danthonia pallida, described in the same paper as the foregoing. In selecting the very appropriate specific name D. pallida I overlooked the fact that Robert Brown had applied the same name to an Australian species. 4. Asprella laevis, sp. nov. Culms slender, branched at the base, sparingly leafy, 10in. to 30in. high. Leaves much shorter than the culms, narrow, flat or involute, thin, smooth, and usually glabrous, but the lower sheaths of the larger forms are downy. Spike inclined or pendent, narrow-linear, 2½in.–5in. long, of 14 to 26 spikelets. Spikelets solitary, slender, one- or two-flowered, about 5/16in. long inclusive of the short blunt mucro. Empty glumes represented by two very narrow, erect, concave, finely ciliated bristles, three-fourths the length of the flowering-glume. Flowering-glume lanceolate, rounded at the back, smooth, 3- to 5-nerved, shortly and often unequally three-toothed at the apex, the middle tooth forming a short blunt serrate mucro. Palea about four-fifths the length of the flowering-glume, its nerves smooth or delicately ciliate towards the top. Hab. Catlin's River district, near the seaside; and Matukituki Valley (Lower Wanaka), 1,100ft. The present species differs from A. gracilis, Hook. f., in the smooth obscurely nerved keelless flowering-glumes, which are truncately 3-toothed, and end in a short blunt serrate mucro; and in the constant presence and length of the two filiform ciliate outer glumes. The Catlin's River plant is a very short slender form, everywhere perfectly glabrous, and, except in the flowers, differs rather widely from the specimens from Lake Wanaka.