specimens from alpine habitats look very different to that plant, fruited specimens from low levels are undistinguishable. I have not had the opportunity of examining male catkins of P. rhomboidalis, but believe they are longer and more slender than those of our plant.

Art. LIII.—A revised Arrangement of the New Zealand Species of Dacrydium, with Descriptions of new Species. By T. Kirk, F.L.S. Plates XVIII.—XX. [Read before the Wellington Philosophical Society, 2nd February, 1877.] Amongst the Protean plants of New Zealand few genera are in a more unsatisfactory condition than Dacrydium. The unisexual character of the species, the difficulty of procuring good flowering and fruiting specimens from the same individuals, and the local and difficult habitats of several forms, have led to great perplexity, through the combination of distinct species and a want of precision in the limitation of those admitted. It is hoped that the present paper will tend to remove these difficulties, although it must not be looked upon as final, since we may fairly expect that other species will yet be discovered in the mountain districts of the central portion of the North Island and the south-western portion of the South. Although my attention has been specially directed to this genus for the last ten years, it was not until the commencement of last year that I was able to solve the difficulties by which it was surrounded, and to lay down more precise limitation for the recognized species with descriptions of others new to science. I am pleased to say that Sir Joseph Hooker and myself have independently arrived at the same conclusions, except with regard to a single species, and I take the opportunity of expressing my thanks to him for his valued notes, and for the opportunity so kindly afforded me of comparing several of the original specimens of Bidwill, Lyall, Colenso, and Hector, with my own collections. The New Zealand species form two natural groups—the first distinguished by the young plants possessing terete spreading leaves which pass by very gradual transition, sometimes extending over a number of years, into the abbreviated and closely imbricated condition, characteristic of the mature state. With one exception all the species of this group are characterized by solitary fruit. In the second group the young plants exhibit flat, linear, spreading leaves, which for the most part pass abruptly into the quadrifariously imbricated leaves characteristic of the fruiting state: leaves of an intermediate kind are