Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/750

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1. A. linearis, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 76.—A small densely-tufted herb. Rhizome creeping, branched, clothed with the shaggy bases of the old leaves. Leaves terminating the branches of the rhizome, all radical, crowded, spreading, 1–8 in. long, $1⁄10$–$1⁄4$ in. broad, narrow-linear, acute or acuminate, sheathing at the base, thick and coriaceous, nerved, often channelled above, slightly keeled beneath, margins recurved, both surfaces clothed when young with silvery or reddish-brown erect or appressed scales, becoming almost glabrous when old; sheaths broad, appressed, membranous, scarious, thickly covered with narrow hyaline silvery scales. Male flowers: Scape slender, equalling the leaves or shorter than them, simple or forked, 3–9-flowered; bracts 1–2, linear-elongate; pedicels rather long, slender. Perianth-segments silky externally, spreading or reflexed, knobbed at the tip. Filaments much shorter than the segments; anthers oblong. Rudimentary ovary broad, narrowed into a short thick style. Female flowers: Scape very short, almost concealed at the base of the leaves, 1–5-flowered. Perianth-segments longer and narrower, erect. Staminodia present, minute. Ovary large, narrow oblong-ovoid, 1-celled; stigma-sessile, 3-lobed; ovules numerous, attached in 2 series to 3 parietal placentas. Berry large for the size of the plant, ⅓–½ in. long, narrow-oblong, obscurely trigonous, fleshy, red. Seeds obovoid, not angled, smooth, black, shining.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 284. A. minima, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 611.

2. A. Cunninghamii, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 259.—A densely tufted species, epiphytic or terrestrial. Leaves numerous, 2–5 ft. long, ½–1 in. broad at the middle, drawn out into a long acuminate point, contracted below, and then gradually widened into a broad sheathing base, rigid and coriaceous, glabrous or sparingly silky above, clothed with a thin silvery pellicle beneath, midrib and margins silky, nerves 10–12, usually one stronger than the rest on each