Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/739

Libertia.] Stamens 3; filaments free or slightly connate at the base; anthers linear-sagittate, versatile. Ovary 3-celled; ovules many in each cell; style short, with 3 linear-subulate spreading branches. Capsule broadly oblong or obovoid or globose, 3 valved. Seeds angled or compressed, smooth or foveolate.

1. L. ixioides, Spreng. Syst. i. 168.—Rhizome very short. Leaves numerous, densely tufted. 1–2 ft. long, ⅙–⅓ in. broad, narrow-linear, acuminate, rigid and coriaceous, striate; margins cartilaginous, smooth or very obscurely and minutely scabrid. Flowering-stem longer or shorter than the leaves, usually with 1 or 2 cauline leaves below the inflorescence. Panicle broad; branches alternate from the axils of membranous sheathing bracts, bearing subumbellate clusters of 2–10 rather large white flowers on long pedicels. Perianth variable in size, ½–1 in. diam.; the 3 outer segments oblong or elliptic, often greenish on the outside; the 3 inner larger and broader, broadly oblong or orbicular, pure white. Capsule broadly oblong or obovoid, ⅓–½ in. long.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 307; Raoul, Choix, 41; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 252; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 274. L. restioides, Klatt in Linnæa, xxxi. (1861–62) 383. L. orbicularis, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 329. Sisyrinchium ixioides, ''Forst. Prodr. n. 325; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel.'' 161. Moræa ixioides, ''Thunb. Diss. Moræa'', 8. Ferraria ixioides, ''Willd. Sp. Plant.'' iii. 582. Renealmia ixioides, ''Ker-Gawl. Gen. Irid.'' 27. Nematostigma ixioides, ''A. Dietr. Sp. Plant.'' ii. 510.

2. L. grandiflora, ''Sweet Hort. Brit.'' ed. ii. 498.—Habit of L. ixioides, but taller and stouter, 2–3 ft. high, with leaves ⅓–½ in. broad. Flowering-stem and bracts much as in L. ixioides. Flowers rather larger, the inner perianth-segments much larger and broader than the outer, often 3 or 4 times as large. Capsule much larger,