﻿Kirk. — On the New Zecdand Asteliads. 243 



A remarkable phenonieuon exhibited by this genus is tlie varying period 

 I'equired by the respective species for maturing the fruit, Avhich may be roughly 

 stated at from five to fifteen months. A. Hookeriana occupies the longest 

 period, the flowers of the present season and the immature fruit of the last 

 may be plucked together about the middle of April. A. Gunninghamii flowers 

 in December, and requires a year to ripen its fruit. A. Banksii flowers in 

 Api'il ; fruit ripens the following March. A. triiiervia flowers in March and 

 April, and ripens its fruit in Januaiy and February. A. Solandri flowers in 

 January and February, and requires only five months to ripen its fruit. 

 A. grandis usually attains its maximum of flowering about the middle of 

 October, and has shed its fruit by the end of February. 



The perianth is more or less persistent in all the species, but can only be 

 said to inclose the ripe fruit in A. nervosa and A. grandis — the former is 

 described by Dr. Hooker as " having the ovary sunk in the baccate tube of 

 the perianth." In A. grandis the perianth is slightly thickened, and surrounds 

 the lower portion of the fruit, becoming reflexed and coloured internally as 

 the berries fall. In all the other species, except perhaps A. linearis, the 

 perianth becomes chafiy as the fr-uit ripens ; it is least persistent in A. 

 Hookeriana. AH the lowland forms produce staminodia. 



The placentation varies in difierent species ; in ^. Gunninghamii, A. 

 Hookeriana, and A. linearis, the berry is one-celled, with parietal placentae, but 

 in the second of these the placentse are as a rule rudimentaiy ; the seeds are 

 terete, and attached to the placentse by short funiculi. In the remaining 

 species the berry is three, or rarely five-celled, with black, shining, angled 

 seeds usually suspended from the upper central angle of the cell. The fruit of 

 all the species contains more or less mucilage. 



The remarkable similarity in the structure of the seed to that ofJtoncus has 

 led Lindley and other systematists to refer the genus to Juncece ; but this 

 resemblance is confined to the internal structure ; in the thick, hard, and 

 black testa it difiers from all members of that order, and still further in the 

 dioecious flowers, the perianth imited above the base, the terete filaments, 

 short anthers, the rainutely granulated pollen, and the short three-lobed 

 stigma. 



At present the members of this genus have scarcely been apjjlied to 

 economic purposes in the colony. I have been informed that some years ago 

 considerable quantities of the shaggy leaf-bases of A. SolandH, the "tree- 

 flax " of the settlers, were collected in the Kaipara, and purchased by an 

 agent, who shipped them to Melbourne, but no one seems to know the object 

 for which they were collected. The leaves of A. trinervia »xb extensively 

 used for thatching, and the delicate pellicle with which they are invested has 

 been worked into a charming trimming for ladies' bonnets ; the same remark 



