folio sed prioris colore pallidiore, ramis densis erectis, ramulis breviusculis fasciculatis gracilibus sub ¾ lin. diametro. Folia apicibus ramulorum conferta, omnia stricta, erecta, 1¼ unc. longa, ¾ lin. lata, fusco-viridia, intus marginibusque pubescentia, subsericea, vagina latiuscula, brunnea, superne attenuata. Spicæ numerosæ, inter folia confertæ, breviusculæ, ½—¾ unc. longæ, axillares et terminales, strictæ, erectæ, rarius nutantes, 3—4 flores, rachi articulata glabra castanea. Flores breviter pedicellati, pedicellis cum rachi articulatis pubescentibus. Bracteæ 2–3, corollam superantes, exteriores basi late vaginantes, deinde lineari-subulatæ ut folia sed breviores, coriaceæ, spicis æquilongæ, marginibus dorsoque carinato-ciliatis, intus sericeo-pubescentes, interiores minores. Calycis foliola ovata, acuta, striata, marginibus scariosis ciliatis, tubo corollæ breviora, persistentia. Corolla sub 1½ lin. longa, pro genere latissima, late campanulata, suburceolata, albida, inter bracteas occulta inconspicua, tubo brevi calycem vix superante, segmentis brevissimis late ovatis obtusis concavis, primum incurvis apice obtuso inflexo, demum patentibus subinvolutis. Stamina ad faucem inserta, parva, filamentis brevibus. Capsula late obovata, bracteis foliolisque calycinis persistentibus inclusa, valvis coriaceis obovatis apicibus incurvis medio septiferis; columna centralis valida, sublignosa, angulata, superne in ramos 5 pendulos clavatos fissa semina gerentes.
A very peculiar species, most nearly allied to the D. Lessonianum, A. Rich., and D. Urvillianum, A. Rich., but very distinct from both. It has also been gathered upon the Chatham Islands by Dr. Dieffenbach, in whose specimens the leaves are most beautifully margined, and the backs of the bracteæ covered with a silvery and velvety pubescence. I do not however place much reliance on the pubescence of any of the species of this genus, which appears a very variable character.
The genus Dracophyllum was established by Labillardière upon the D. verticillatum, a plant of New Caledonia (vide Voyage de Labill. vol. ii. p. 211. t. 40), and afterwards adopted by Mr. Brown, who added the D. secundum of Australia as a second species; both these have the flowers racemose or panicled, the bracteas caducous, and the stamens either hypogynous or inserted at the very base of the corolla. In a subgenus or section called Sphenotoma, the latter botanist included some other New Holland plants with spiked flowers, persistent bracteas, and stamens inserted upon the corolla; this has since been erected into a genus by Mr. Sweet (Fl. Austral, t. 44), and retained as such by all future authors. Mr. Brown having further remarked that some of Forster's New Zealand Epacrideæ, as E. longifolium and E. rosmarinifolium, Forst., belonged to the genus Dracophyllum, as modified by him, they were forthwith published as such by M. A. Richard, who added two more species to the genus, and also by Cunningham, who published a third (D. latifolium); but none of these authors proposed any sectional characters for these species, which differ most materially from those of Mr. Brown's first section of the genus, in many of them having epipetalous stamens, as also in the flowers being spiked and the bractese persistent, and which equally differ from Sphenotoma in habit and the form of the corolla. Lastly, M. DeCandolle, in 1839, remodelled the generic character of Dracophyllum, and, intending it to include only the plants of Mr. Brown's first section, described the calyx as "ebracteatus," and the stamens as "corollæ non adnata," both characters the opposite of what most of the New Zealand species exhibit.
Having received several allied new species of this genus from New Zealand, I shall add their characters here and give a conspectus of the whole, both for the purpose of showing the position of D. longifolium and D. scoparium in the series, as also because I am anxious to seize the first opportunity afforded me of laying the new species before the public and remodelling this fine genus[1]. I may here remark, that as a genus it is an exceed-
