Dianella.| LILIACES. 715 
Species 11 or 12, chiefly Australian, but found also in New Zealand, Poly- 
nesia, tropical Asia, and the Mascarene Islands. The single New Zealand 
species extends to Norfolk Island and several parts of Polynesia. 
1. D. intermedia, Hindi. Prodr. Fl. Ins. Norfole. 28.—Rhizome 
stout, woody, creeping, usually with underground runners. Leaves 
numerous, crowded at the top of the rhizome, distichous and 
sheathing at the base, 14-3 ft. long or more, 4—3in. wide, narrow 
linear-ensiform, acute or acuminate, keeled, margins and keel 
minutely scabrid. Panicle 6-24 in. long, much branched; peduncles 
and pedicels slender, the latter curved. Flowers small, ++in. 
diam., greenish or purplish- white. Perianth - segments oblong, 
spreading; the 3 outer usually 5-6-nerved; the 3 inner rather 
broader, 3-nerved. Filaments expanded into a yellow or orange 
struma often thicker than the anther; anther linear-oblong, yellow. 
Berry 4-2in. long, broadly oblong, bright-biue.—A. Cunn. Precur. 
n. 300; Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 255; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 283. D. nigra, Col. in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 339. 
D. reflexa, Col. l.c. xxvii. (1895) 396. 
NortH anp SoutH Is~tAnDs: From the Three Kings Islands and the North 
Cape to Foveaux Strait, abundant. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Turutu. No- 
vem ber—December. 
6. PHORMIUM, Forst. 
Tall rigid and coriaceous heros. Rhizome short, stout, branched, 
with thick and fleshy perpendicular rootlets. Leaves all radical, 
long, linear-ensiform, equitant and distichous, exceedingly tough 
and coriaceous. Flowering stem or scape tall, leafless, with 
alternate bracteate branches at the top; bracts caducous. Flowers 
pedicelled on the branches of a terminal panicle, dull-red or yellow ; 
pedicels jointed. Perianth tubular, curved; segments 6, connate 
at the base, free but connivent above; the 3 outer lanceolate, erect, 
acute ; the 3 inner rather longer, with spreading tips. Stamens 6, 
inserted at the base of the segments and longer than them ; fila- 
ments filiform; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary sessile, oblong, 
obtusely trigonous, 3-celled; style slender, equalling or exceeding 
the stamens, declinate ; stigma small, capitate; ovules numerous 
in each cell. Capsule subcoriaceous or almost membranous, oblong 
or linear, trigonous or almost terete, straight or twisted, loculicidally 
3-valved. Seeds many, oblong, greatly compressed; testa black, 
shining. 
Phormium, or the ‘‘New Zealand flax,” is a very remarkable genus of 
2 species, confined to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Its value as producing 
one of the strongest and most durable fibres of the vegetable kingdom is too 
well known to require recapitulation here. 
Leaves 3-9ft., dark-green, glaucous beneath; margins 
usually bordered with a coloured line. Flowers dull- 
red. Capsule short, erect or inclined, trigonous, 2-4 in. 
long -- ay ae ae ne oo 1.) B. tenaz: 
