266 Transactions. — Botany, 



glabrous, thickly pubescent underneath, as if minutely and 

 regularly pitted (very apparent under a lens), sharply keeled ; 

 base much dilated and clasping, 4^ inches broad, black, shining, 

 margins thin ; veins spreading laterally, largely and coarsely 

 reticulate. Male : Scape 2 feet long, stout, triquetrous. If 

 inches circumference at base, comj)osed of 7 nearly equal equi- 

 distant long single droopuig racemes, the lowest 9 inches long, 

 ■| inch wide, each about 3 inches apart on scape ; peduncles 

 1 inch long, each with an excessively long bract at its base, 

 ovate, very acuminate, caudate, drawn out into a very long 

 narrow tip, the lowest being 2 feet 6 inches long and 3 inches 

 wide at the broadest; the upper portion light-green, sub-coria- 

 ceous and glabrous, the lower white, soft, and densely silky on 

 both sides ; the pubescence adpressed in stippled dots. Flowers 

 yellow-brown, numerous, crowded, spreading, above 1 inch dia- 

 meter; segments cut to base, narrow, linear, obtuse, h inch 

 long, much longer than anthers, reflexed, with 1 central nerve 

 running to tip and 2 lateral nerves ending half-way ; all shaggy 

 below on the outside (with pedicels and bracteoles), but the 3 

 inner have only a narrow central shaggy line to tip, with mem- 

 branous glabrous margins, the 3 outer being hairy, with ciliated 

 edges ; pedicels 2 lines long, each with a small linear 1 -nerved 

 bracteole the length of pedicel. Stamens 3 lines long, spread- 

 ing, rumpled ; anthers, -^ inch long, triangular, obtuse, emar- 

 ginate, largely hastate, their basal extremities curved and 

 divergent, corrugated, somewhat bladdery. Stigma rather 

 large, slightly produced, 3-fid. Female: Scape 16-18 inches 

 long, very stout, composed of seven long narrow cylindrical 

 simple flaccid racemes ; much more compact on scape than 

 male, each 9-10 inches long and ^ inch wide ; peduncles very 

 short, 2-4 lines, but the lowest 1^ inches ; bracts much as in 

 male, very silky below, the lowest 2 feet 6 inches long, and 2 

 inches wide at base. Flowers light-brown, exceedingly nume- 

 rous and compact, very small, scarcely 2 lines long including 

 ovary ; segments not split to base, very small, about ^ line long, 

 somewhat linear-ovate, reflexed from middle, the 3 outer more 

 shaggy and ciliate, 1-nerved to tip ; tips obtuse ; the lower part 

 of perianth forming a cup around the base of ovary ; pedicels 

 about 3 lines long, erect, close, but not crowded, sub-verticillate, 

 patent, very shaggy, each with a narrow-linear bracteole at base 

 the length of the pedicel ; hairs flat, membranous, glossy, sub- 

 ovate-lanceolate, nerved, white. Ovary (immature) ovate, beak 

 produced ; stigma, large, spreading, very pubescent ; anthers 

 (abortive) minute, triangular, acute, hastate, adhermg closely to 

 ovary, and with a part of the stamen appearing above the 

 reflexed segment. 



Hnh. Forest?, hilly country north of Napier, County of 

 Wairoa; January, 1886: Mr. A, Hamilton. 



