Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/757

Phormium.] Raoul, Choix, 41; ''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 286. P. Forsterianum, ''Col. in Hook. Land. Journ. Bot.'' iii. (1844) 8. P. Hookeri, ''Gunn in Bot. Mag.'' t. 6973.

Perennial herbs. Rootstock short, stout, with numerous fleshy almost tuberous roots. Leaves all radical, numerous, linear, sheathing at the base, often fleshy. Scape simple or very rarely branched, naked, terminating in a dense many-flowered raceme. Flowers rather small, yellow or white. Perianth marcescent, 6-partite; segments subequal, distinct or slightly connate at the base, 1-nerved. Stamens 6, hypogynous or adnate to the base of the segments; filaments subulate-filiform; anthers versatile. Ovary subglobose, 3-celled; style filiform; stigma small, capitate, obscurely 3-lobed; ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule broadly ovoid or subglobose, membranous, 3-celled, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds few, often compressed and triquetrous; testa black.

1. B. Rossii, Benth. and Hook. f. Gen. Plant. iii. 784.—A stout perennial herb 9 in. to 3 ft. high; stems sometimes 1½ in. diam. at the base. Leaves numerous, all radical, outer spreading or recurved, inner ascending, 6 in. to 2 ft. long, ½–2 in. broad, broadly ensiform, obtuse or subacute, fleshy, glabrous, concave above, finely-striate. Scape stout, erect, terete, ¼–⅓ in. diam. Raceme very stout and dense, 3–6 in. long, 1–2½ in. diam. Flowers numerous, very densely crowded, bright-yellow, polygamo-diœcious, ⅓ in. diam.; pedicels slender, erect, ½–¾ in. long; bracts lanceolate. Perianth-segments linear-oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse, spreading in the male flowers, more erect in the female. Stamens of the male flowers shorter than the segments; filaments subulate, terete, glabrous; anthers oblong. Ovary of the females broadly ovoid; style short, stout; stigma small, obscurely lobed. Capsule ¼–⅓ in.