Astelia. | LILIACE. 713 
trees or on rocks. Leaves very numerous, spreading and recurved, 
2-5 ft. long, 14-3in. wide at the middle, linear-ensiforin, narrowed 
above into a long acuminate point, suddenly expanded below into a 
sheathing base sometimes 4—5in. across, conspicuously 3-nerved, 
glabrous and deeply channelled in front, keeled and with a thin 
white silvery pellicle beneath ; sheathing base black, at the extreme 
base white and fleshy, glabrous or clothed with copious long white 
silky hairs. Male flowers: Scape stout, much shorter than the 
leaves, densely silky below, panicled; branches few, 5-8, simple, 
3-9 in. long, 1 in. broad with the flowers on; bracts at the base of 
the branches very large, leafy, acuminate. Flowers very numerous, 
densely crowded, }in. long, pale lemon-yellow; pedicels slender, 
14in., each subtended by a linear bract. Perianth 6-partite; seg- 
ments reflexed, linear, obtuse, silky externally. Stamens as long 
as the segments; anthers linear, erect, sagittate at the base. 
Female flowers: Scape stout, branched as in the male; but 
branches longer and more slender, sometimes 12—14in. long by 
$in. diam., usually drooping in fruit. Flowers much smaller ; 
perianth with a hemispherical tube closely surrounding the ovary ; 
segments reflexed. Ovary globose, 3-celled; ovules numerous, 
attached to the inner angles of the cells. Berry rather small, 
tin. diam., globose, bright-red. Seeds small, obovoid, slightly 
curved, not angled, black.—Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. i. 260; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 284; Bot. Mag. t. 5503. A. micro- 
sperma, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 251. A. albicans, 
Col. l.c. 252. A. hastata, Col. l.c. xix. (1887) 265. 
NortH Isuanp: Abundant in forests throughout. Souru Isuanp: Marl- 
borough—Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander; Pelorus Valley, 
Rutland, Macmahon! Nelson—Common on the West Coast, from Collingwood 
southwards. Sea-level to 2700 ft. Kahakaha. January—February. 
A very distinct species, at once known by the broad almost glabrous 3-nerved 
leaves with a nearly black sheathing base, by the densely placed flowers, the 
males being much longer and narrower than in any other species, and by the 
small red globose berry. It is a conspicuous plant in all the forest districts of 
the North Island, from its habit of growing perched high up on the limbs of tall 
forest-trees, where it forms huge tufts resembling the nests of some gigantic 
bird, for which, in fact, it was mistaken when first seen by Cook and his officers 
in 1769, 
6. A. nervosa, Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 
i. 260.—Stout, densely tufted, often forming large masses in moist 
or boggy ground. Leaves numerous, spreading, 2-5 or even up 
to 8 ft. long, 4-3 in. broad, or in large specimens as much as 4in., 
linear -lanceolate or linear-ensiform, acuminate, dilated at the 
sheathing base, coriaceous, many-nerved, one nerve on each side 
stouter than the rest and with the midrib often coloured red, 
glabrous above or rarely silky, beneath more or less scurfy or 
clothed with silky appressed hairs, rarely almost glabrous; margins 
recurved, usually silky; sheathing base densely villous with long 
