Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/716

676 dense, few- or many-flowered, ½–1½ in. long. Flowers minute, the perianth about $1⁄10$ in. long, curved, pointing downwards, greenish. Upper sepal ovate, acuminate, concave; lateral rather longer, free, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate. Petals the same shape as the lateral sepals, but shorter, and with the tips almost aristate. Lip articulate on a flat ribband-like projection from the foot of the column, mobile, oblong, acute, truncate at the base, not ciliate, disc almost wholly occupied by a thick adnate plate, which is obscurely 3-grooved towards the base. Column short, the lateral lobes broad, obliquely truncate and irregularly 2–3-notched at the tip. Anther large, apiculate, overtopping the small rostellum.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 273.

4. P. rufum, R. Br. Prodr. 319.—Very similar in size and habit to P. pumilum, and like it with the leaf reduced to a sheathing bract just below the spike, the lamina very short and subulate. Spike few- or many-flowered, ½–¾ in. long. Flowers still more minute than in P. pumilum, the perianth about $1⁄12$ in. long, horizontal, reddish or yellowish. Upper sepal ovate, acuminate, concave; the lateral much longer, quite free, lanceolate, acuminate, the points tipped with a small gland. Petals small, lanceolate, shorter than the upper sepal. Labellum articulate on a flat ribband-like projection from the foot of the column, mobile, lanceolate, acute, truncate at the base, adnate plate occupying most of the disc, thickest along the margins. Column very short, the lobes rather narrow, 2-toothed at the tip. Anther large, apiculate, overtopping the small rostellum.—''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vi. 344; ''Fitzgerald, Austral. Orch.'' ii. pt. 4. P. nudum, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i 242; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 272. P. tunicatum, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 242. (?) P. variegatum, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 208.

Glabrous terrestrial herbs. Root of small rounded tubers on fleshy fibres. Leaf solitary, linear or lanceolate or oblong. Flowers solitary or 2–4 in a terminal raceme; bracts acute. Sepals and petals subequal, all linear; the upper sepal erect, the lateral sepals and petals spreading or deflexed (but the position apparently re-