554 



Transactions. 



with conspicuous spiny projections. Tlie stigmatic surface is very markedly 

 papillose. 



Fruit was collected, in April. It is a dry, downy capsule, splitting 

 irregularly. 



N.B. — Many of the bushes are clothed quite thickly with a growth of 

 lichens. 



11. Apium prostratum, var. filiforme. 



Station. — (1.) H.C. : (a.) On the channels, rooting in the edges of the 

 banks, and forming more or less straggling clumps. It is rather remarkable 

 that in one of the channels A. prostratum. is almost the only plant occupying 

 the banks ; the channel is a very moist one, and is very much shaded by 

 the built-up road above, and it is some distance from the river. No bushes 

 of PJagianthus and very few of the smaller plants of the channels appear 

 here ; but nowhere else is Apium so flourishing, (b.) It occurs more or less 

 sparingly in the meadow^s. (2.) N.Br. : As at H.C. (3.) Tu. : {a.) A few 

 plants of Apium were collected near the lagoon, but they belong, in all 

 probability, to the introduced Apium graveolens, as the leaves are larger 

 and very different in shape from the variety filiforme. There is a possi- 

 bility, however, that these are one of the other varieties of A. prostratum: 

 the same form was collected in the salt meadows at Heathcote. (6.) Un- 

 doubted examples of A. prostratum, var. filiforme, form clumps on the 



Fig. 5.— Apium prostratum, var. filiforme. 



a. Branches, half natural size. h. Trifoliate leaf, half natural size. c. Leaf, Apium 

 graveolens (?). half natural size. d. T.S. leaf from plant growing in channel, x 50. 



railway embankment. It is remarkable here, also, as in the case of Pla- 

 gianthus, that whereas at H.C. the plant is found mostly in the damper 

 situations, at Tu. it is in the very driest. 



Life Form (fig. 5, a). — Perennial, perfectly glabrous herb. 



Stems slender, up to 60 cm. in length, prostrate or decumbent in the 

 case of plants in the channels; short (about 5 cm.), erect or suberect in the 

 meadow forms. 



Leaves fleshy, trifohate, each leaflet with a short petiole, rarely sessile 

 (fig. 5, h). Leaflets 5-15 cm. long, more or less lobed or serrated, with 

 obtuse apices. 



Roots are long and stout. 



