leaflets of the bracts, in its long, flaccid, grass-like leaves, and in the long, narrow inflorescence. Through a misunderstanding of what the type of A. lyallii was like, A. crenulata has been much confused with that species both in herbaria and in literature. A. lyallii, in contrast to A. crenulata, has hard cane-like leaves with smooth edges while the bracts are entirely different from those of A. crenulata. The leaf sheaths of A. crenulata are broad and thin, almost membraneous, 80 mm long, 8 mm wide at top, 20 mm at base. Stipules 1—3-foliolate, the central segment often reaching more than half way up the petiole. Leaves with 2—3 pairs of leaflets, which are up to 150 mm long and 5 mm wide. When fresh the midrib is often bright red. Female inflorescence much longer than the leaves, up to 60 cm long or more. The bracts are borne on the upper two-thirds of the stem. Usually the lower bracts are sterile. Bract stipules 1–3-foliolate, the central segment being long with a strong midrib below; margins of leaflets and midrib serrulate. Male plant usually smaller and less robust than the female. A form with narrow leaves has been collected in Nelson and Otago (Lake Harris, BD. 11281). Three specimens from Lake Harris in the Auckland Museum (6445, 6446.1, 6448) appear to be fasciated forms of A. crenulata Distribution. Mountains from Nelson Province to Foveaux Strait in the region of high rainfall. Nelson: Mt. Arthur (Cheeseman, AM; Mason, BD). Mt. Zetland (Mason, BD). Mt. Peel (Mason, BD). Westland: Hills Peak (Wall, CM; Cockayne, AM, DM). Mt. Barron (Cockayne, AM, DM). Mt. Hooker (Mason, BD). Alecs Knob (Wood, AM; Allan, BD; Oliver). Canterbury: Arthurs Pass (J. B. Armstrong, CM, type; Cheeseman, AM, CM; Oliver, DM). Brownings Pass (Haast. CM). Rakaia and Rangitata sources (Armstrong). Malte Brun (Wall, CM). Mt. Ollivier (Cheeseman, AM, DM). Mueller Glacier (Wall, CM). Copeland Pass (Wall, CM). Otago: Mt. Ida (Matthews, AM). Humboldt Mountains (Cockayne. AM, DM). Bold Peak (Poppelwell, AM; Speden, DM). Lake Harris (Cockayne, AM; Zotov, BD; Thomson, DM). Routeburn (Allen, BD). Wilmot Pass (Simpson&Thomson). Upper Hollyford (Simpson&Thomson). McKinnon Pass (Simpson&Thomson). Upper Freeman (Simpson, BD). Dusky Sound (Lyall). Princess Range (Speden, DM). Aciphylla townsoni Cheeseman, Man. N.Z Flora, 1138, 1906. Type from Mt. Buckland in Auckland Museum. The nearest relation of A. townsoni in New Zealand is A. crenulata, but it differs from that species in its narrower and more flaccid leaves, the average width of the leaflets being 1½ mm. The inflorescence is shorter and more open The leaf sheaths are thin and fairly long and the stipules acicular, up to 17 mm long or absent. The laminae may be simple, trifoliolate, pinnate with 2 or 3 pairs of leaflets, or bipinnate, in the last respect differing from A. crenulata. Leaves up to 20 c long. Inflorescence overtopping the leaves Bracts: Lowest with acicular stipules about 6 mm long and with pinnate laminae, upper ones with minute stipules and simple laminae. Distribution. Mountains of west Nelson and Westland. Mt. Buckland (Townson, AM, type; DM). Mt. Faraday (Townson, DM, AM). Mt. Lyell (Townson, AM). Mt. Arthur (Heine, DM). Boulder Lake (Simpson&Thomson). Kellys Hill (Petrie, DM). Paparoa Range (Townson, AM; Mackay, BD). Head of Baton River (Oliver), all leaves simple with joints at irregular intervals, no stipules. Aciphylla simplicifolia (F. Muell.) Bentham, Fl. Austr., 3, 375, 1866. Gingidium simplicifolium F. Muell., Trans. Phil. Soc. Vic., 1, 104, 1855; Pl. Vict., t. 27, 1864–65. Type from Cobboras Mountains, in National Herbarium, Melbourne. Leaves all radical, simple, about 25 cm long. Sheath strongly ribbed in centre, with wide smooth margins; 55 × 6 mm; no stipules; lamina linear, ribbed, a transverse joint every 10–12 mm; apex rounded. Stem a little longer than the leaves, finely ribbed, bearing compound umbels on the uppermost third. Compound umbels alternate or subopposite, about 6, with a terminal umbel of about 10 rays. Peduncles slender, long, terminated by an umbel of 6–8 umbellules on slender pedicels of different lengths. Umbellules of numerous shortly stalked flowers with lanceolate bracteoles. Bracts shorter than the compound umbels, lowest bract 26 mm, compound umbel 42 mm; bract sheaths rather broad, gradually narrowing to a blunt, linear, simple lamina. “Petals rather narrow, scarcely pointed. Fruit oblong, 4–5 lines long, the carpels dorsally flattened, the ribs all acutely prominent, but the lateral ones twice as broad as the others and almost winged. Vittae often very obscure.” (Bentham). A. simplicifolia resembles A. townsoni more than it does any other New Zealand species, but A. simplicifolia differs in the blunt-pointed, simple leaves and bract laminae, absence of