Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/760

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A dwarf-perennial herb. Rhizome slender, creeping, branched. Leaves crowded on short shoots from the rhizome, all radical, linear, distichous, sheathing at the base. Flower solitary, terminal, almost sessile amongst the leaves. Perianth funnel-shaped, persistent, 6-partite; segments distinct, linear, subequal, 5-nerved. Stamens 6, attached to the base of the segments and shorter than them; filaments filiform; anthers linear, erect, twisted after flowering, cells introrse, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary subglobose, sessile, 3-celled; ovules several in each cell; style filiform; stigma terminal, punctiform. Capsule globose, enclosed in the persistent perianth, 3-celled, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds oblong, subcompressed, quite smooth; testa black, crustaceous.

1. H. novæ-zealandiæ, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 258.—Small, often forming broad patches in subalpine swamps. Leaves crowded, flat or involute, linear, striate, glaucous; the outer spreading or recurved, 1–2½ in. long; the inner much shorter, reduced to erect lanceolate sheathing bracts. Flower almost sessile, large for the size of the plant, ½–¾ in. long, lilac-blue or white. Perianth-segments erect below, spreading from a little below the middle. Stamens about half as long as the segments; filaments flattened, pubescent; anthers shortly sagittate at the base. Capsule globose-trigonous, ¼–⅓ in. diam.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 287. H. Tasmaniæ, ''Hook. f. Fl. Tasm.'' ii. 54, t. 132.

Small glabrous herbs. Bulb tunicated. Stem simple, erect. Leaves few, scattered, linear, sheathing the stem. Flowers small, erect, solitary or corymbose. Perianth 6-partite, deciduous; segments free, all similar, linear or linear-oblong, spreading, flat. Stamens 6, hypogynous, shorter than the perianth; filaments flat; anthers oblong, versatile. Ovary superior, sessile, 3-celled; ovules numerous in each cell; styles 3, shortly connate at the base, linear, recurved, scigmatic along the inner edge. Capsule ovoid or oblong, 3–6-sulcate, 3-celled, loculicidally dehiscent. Seeds small, globose; testa thin, brown, appressed.