Tab. 6973. 

 PHORMIUM HooKEiir. 



Native of New Zealand. 



Nat. Ord. Liliaceje. — Tribe HsuEROCALLKS. 

 Genus Phoemium, Font.; (Benlh. et Hook.f. Gen. PI. vol. iii. p. 773.) 



Phoeitium Hookeri; foliis ensiformibus flaccidis recurvis apice laceris utrinque 

 et marginibus pallide la)te viridibus concoloribus non glaucis, scapo inclinato, 

 floribus gracile pedicellatis, sepalis lineari-lanceolatis acutis aurantiacis, petalis 

 lineari-oblongis viridibus apicibus rotundatis recurvis, filamentis sanguineis, 

 capsulis pendulis elongatis angustis tortis. 



P. Hookeri, Gunn mss. in Serb. Hook. 



In the garden of my brother-in-law, Dr. Lombe of 

 Torquay, are growing luxuriantly side by side three very 

 distinct- looking species of New Zealand flax, of which he 

 obtained two under the names respectively of Swamp flax 

 and Mountain flax, from a nurseryman ; the third, or Moun- 

 tain flax, he raised himself from seed given him by Mr. Grace, 

 a missionary, who, he is informed, resided at Wanganui, 

 in the Northern Island of New Zealand. Dr. Lombe pointed 

 out to me the remarkable differences in these three plants, 

 which were indeed very obvious, but whereas the Swamp 

 flax and Hill flax were both familiar to me as recognized 

 forms of P. tenax, having stiff leaves glaucous beneath and 

 with coloured margins, that raised from Mr. Grace's seeds 

 differed wholly from the above and from any form of 

 either of the two known species (P. tenax and P. Colensoi) 

 in the flatter flaccid recurved pale green unbordered 

 leaves with fissured tips at an early age, and which are 

 rolled back so that their tips reach or lay on the 

 ground. On comparing this latter plant with Herbarium 

 specimens of Phormium, I had no difficulty in recognizing its 

 identity with a species sent to me twenty years ago by 

 my late friend Ronald Gunn, F.R.S., of Tasmania, who had 

 found it in 1864, when on a visit which he paid to New 

 Zealand as a member of a Commission invited to settle 

 the position of the capital of the island. This species he 



Jan. 1st, 1888. 



