Plate 208.— ROSTKOVIA GRACIT.IS. 



Family JUNCACE^.] [Genus ROSTKOVIA. Desv. 



Rostkovia gracilis, Hook. /. Fl. Anfarcl. i, 83, t. 47 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 722. 



Rostkovia gracilis was first collected by Sir J. D. Hooker on the Auckland and 

 Campbell Islands towards the close of the year 1840, during the short visit made 

 to the islands by Sir J. C. Ross in the Antarctic exploring-vessels "Erebus" and 

 " Terror." On his return to England Hooker published the species in his 

 monumental " Flora Antarctica," giving a full description and excellent plate. 

 He remarks that it was found " amongst rocks and also in marshy places ; common 

 at an elevation of 800 ft. to 1,200 ft." Subsequent visitors to the group have also 

 found it to be plentiful. The first botanist to observe it in New Zealand was Sir 

 Julius von Haast, who in 1865 collected it on the slopes above Browning's Pass, at 

 the head of the Rakaia Valley. It is now known to be generally distributed in alpine 

 localities in the South Island, from the Mount Arthur Plateau, Nelson, to Foveaux 

 Strait. It does not seem to have been recorded from Stewart Island. The late 

 Mr. Buchanan separated the New Zealand plant from that found in the Auckland 

 and Campbell Islands in the belief that the latter always had the leaves solitary 

 and two or three times longer than the stems. But in point of fact specimens from 

 both localities are variable in the number and length of the leaves. 



Taking the genus Rostkovia in the sense of the " Genera Plantarum," it 

 contains four species. Of these, three are found in the southernmost portions of 

 South America, one of them also extending to the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, 

 and the Auckland and Campbell Islands. The remaining species, which is the one 

 figured in this work, is confined to the New Zealand region. Rostkovia is thus a 

 typical Antarctic genus, if it is allowable to use the term for those genera which 

 exist on several of the land- masses which most nearly approach the Antarctic 

 Continent, but of whose previous existence thereon we have no proof whatever. 



Plate 203. Rostkovia gracilis, drawa from specimens collected on Moimt Torlesse, Canterbury, 

 at an altitude of 4,000 ft. Fig. 1, ligule of leaf (x2); 2, flower (x2); 3 and 4, anthers (x6); 

 5, pistil (x 6) ; 6, transverse section of ovary (x 6) ; 7, capsule (x 2) ; 8, seed (enlarged). 



