Plate 205.— SPARGANIUM ANTIPODUM. 



Family SPARGANIACEiE.] [Genus SPARGANIUM, Linn. 



Sparganium antipodum, Graebner in Allg. Bot. Zeitschr. iv (1899), 33 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. 

 Fl. 744. 



Mr. J. C. Bidwill appears to have been the first to collect Sparganium antipodum 

 in New Zealand, but I am unaware of the exact locality. Mr. Colenso and other 

 early botanists also obtained it ; so that Sir J. D. Hooker, in the " Flora Novae 

 Zelandiee," spoke of it as being common in the North Island in watery places. This, 

 however, requires some quaUfication, for south of the East Cape and Taranaki 

 it is rarely seen except in lowland districts not far from the sea. In the South 

 Island it has been recorded from Picton by Mr. Rutland, from the Westport district 

 by Mr. Townson, and I have seen a specimen said to have been collected in North 

 Canterbury by Dr. Gaze. 



S. antipodum extends to AustraUa, where it ranges from Queensland to Vic- 

 toria, and is the only species of the genus found in the Southern Hemisphere. In 

 the " Flora," and again in the " Handbook," Sir J. D. Hooker referred it to the northern 

 S. simplex. Mr. Bentham, in the " Flora Austrahensis " (vol. vii, p. 161) says that 

 " this plant has the simple inflorescence, foliage, and habit of the erect varieties of 

 S. simplex, but has not the narrow acuminate fusiform fruit of that species. The 

 fruit is more like that of S. ramosum, but smaller." Mr. Bentham therefore revived 

 Robert Brown's name of S. angustifolium, in spite of the fact that it had already 

 been appUed to an American species. In 1900 Dr. Graebner, in liis monograph of 

 the genus published in " Das Pflanzenreich " (heft 2), proposed the new name of 

 S. antipodum. This I accepted in the Manual ; but there can be little doubt that 

 Morong's name of S. subglobosum, appHed to a plant collected by Wilkes's Expedition 

 at the Bay of Islands, is the one which will ultimately have to be accepted, as it has 

 eleven years' priority of date. 



According to Dr. Graebner, there are fifteen well-ascertained species of the genus ; 

 all of them, except S. antipodum, confined to the temperate or frigid zones of the 

 Northern Hemisphere. Most of the species are very variable, and are divided by 

 Graebner into numerous subspecies, varieties, and minor divisions, mainly character- 

 ized by sUght differences in habit, shape of the leaf, shape and size of the fruit, &c. 

 The occurrence of a species of the genus in Australia and New Zealand so far 

 removed from all its allies is a very remarkable problem in plant distribution. 



Plate 205. Sparganium antipodum, drawn fiom specimens collected in the vicinity of Auckland. 

 Fig. 1, section of inflorescence (x 3) ; 2 and 3, perianth-segments (x 10) ; 4, anther (x 8) ; 5, cross- 

 section of anther (enlarged) ; 6, section of female inflorescence ( x 3) ; 7 and 8, perianth-segments 

 from female flower (x 10) ; 9, section of ovary (enlarged) ; 10, ripe fruit (x 8) ; 11, sectior of same 

 ( X 8) ; 12, section of seed (enlarged) ; 13, embryo (enlarged). 



