Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/755

Dianella.]

1. D. intermedia, ''Endl. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norfolc.'' 28.—Rhizome stout, woody, creeping, usually with underground runners. Leaves numerous, crowded at the top of the rhizome, distichous and sheathing at the base, 1½–3 ft. long or more, ½–¾ in. wide, narrow linear-ensiform, acute or acuminate, keeled, margins and keel minutely scabrid. Panicle 6–24 in. long, much branched; peduncles and pedicels slender, the latter curved. Flowers small, ¼–⅓ in. diam., greenish or purplish - white. Perianth-segments oblong, spreading; the 3 outer usually 5–6-nerved; the 3 inner rather broader, 3-nerved. Filaments expanded into a yellow or orange struma often thicker than the anther; anther linear-oblong, yellow. Berry ½–¾ in. long, broadly oblong, bright-blue.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 300; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl Nov. Zel. i. 255; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 283. D. nigra, Col. in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 339. D. reflexa, Col. l.c. xxvii. (1895) 396.

Tall rigid and coriaceous herbs. Rhizome short, stout, branched, with thick and fleshy perpendicular rootlets. Leaves all radical, long, linear-ensiform, equitant and distichous, exceedingly tough and coriaceous. Flowering stem or scape tall, leafless, with alternate bracteate branches at the top; bracts caducous. Flowers pedicelled on the branches of a terminal panicle, dull-red or yellow; pedicels jointed. Perianth tubular, curved; segments 6, connate at the base, free but connivent above; the 3 outer lanceolate, erect, acute; the 3 inner rather longer, with spreading tips. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the segments and longer than them; filaments filiform; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary sessile, oblong, obtusely trigonous, 3-celled; style slender, equalling or exceeding the stamens, declinate; stigma small, capitate; ovules numerous in each cell. Capsule subcoriaceous or almost membranous, oblong or linear, trigonous or almost terete, straight or twisted, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds many, oblong, greatly compressed; testa black, shining.