188 SUBANTARCTIC ISLANDS OF NEW ZEALAND. [Ecological Botany. 



PleurophyUum criniferum is a, true summer-green herb. The leaves are thinner 

 and much more erect than those of P. speciosum. They are pale but bright green, 

 soft, only moderately thick, and covered on the under-surface with a loose, silky 

 tomentum, through which the chlorophyl is dimly visible. They are ribbed on the 

 under-surface, the ribs being stout, flexible, and 3 mm. or 4 mm. broad, and the inter- 

 vening spaces about 2 cm. across. The ribs hold the leaf erect, and their flexibility 

 keeps it from tearing. The tase is narrowed into a stout petiole, the margins of 

 which are so strongly incurved as to touch, or nearly so, at the base of the blade, 

 making a channel 2-5 cm. deep. The massive flowering-stem is 1 m. tall, or more, 

 and bears numerous globose heads in a raceme, each about 4 cm. in diameter, and 

 with the florets purplish-brown in colour, but not showy (fig. 16). The roots are 

 very numerous, stout, fleshy, and long. 



PleurophyUum Hookeri is a semi-summer-green herb, and a much smaller plant 

 than the two preceding. The leaves are in loose rosettes, those of the centre being 

 erect, and the outer ones semi-erect or pressed to the ground. The leaves are of 

 the obovate type, about 29 cm. long by 6-5 cm. broad, and have a short, thick, juicy 

 petiole. They are rather thin in texture, and covered on both surfaces with silvery, 

 adpressed silky hairs, this covering being the special physiognomic mark of the 

 plant. The flowering-stems are about 40 cm. tall, and bear some 20 subglobose 

 heads in a raceme. 



Cclmisia vernicosa is a sufFruticose plant, with numerous branching, woody, 

 prostrate stems, which are sometimes subterranean, and furnished at their extremi- 

 ties, which bend upwards, with close rosettes of leaves. The leaves are linear, about 

 8-2 cm. long by 5 mm. broad, dark green, excessively glossy, stiff, coriaceous, and 

 extremely flexible. The rosettes vary much in size, being from 16-5 cm. to 4-5 cm. 

 in diameter. The dead leaves turn into peat, and nearly equal the living portion of 

 the rosette. The plant as a whole forms a round raised mat 93 cm. or so in diameter, 

 or the rosettes may be pressed together so closely that a cushion results. The flower- 

 heads are numerous, 3 cm. to 4 cm. in diameter, and the scapes are about 13 cm. tall. 

 The flower-buds are closely protected by the involucral bracts, and are also hidden 

 by the stiff inner leaves of the rosette. At night the flower-heads partially close, 

 the ray-florets becoming vertical and close together. 



Biilbinella Rossii is a summer-green perennial herb, with leaves somewhat after 

 the manner of a garden hyacinth. The leaves are numerous, about 29 cm. long by 

 9 cm, broad, and given off from a short, stout rootstock. They are bright green 

 and fleshy. The outer leaves are curved, but the inner nearly erect, and all are 

 bent so as to form channels down which water can flow to the roots. The flowers 

 are dioecious, orange-coloured, in dense racemes on rather long pedicels. The scapes 

 are stout, and 30 cm. or more long. The male inflorescence is larger and more showy 

 than the female, and may be 10 cm. by 5 cm. 



Adphylla latifolia and A. antipoda are stately, umbelliferous, evergreen herbs 

 (fig. 6). The leaves are large, erect, very thick, coriaceous, long-petioled, dark green, 

 and pinnate. The inflorescence consists of compound umbels forming a head, which 

 is frequently of great size, and borne on a stout yellowish-green flower-stalk, 73 cm. 

 tall by 3-5 cm. in diameter, more or less. The two species are closely related, 

 A. antipoda having the leaves much more finely divided than A. latifolia. Further 

 details are given when dealing with the special ecology of the plants. 



