﻿. Kirk. — On the Neio Zealaivl Asteliads. 245 



Male. — 1-2 feet long ; panicle 6 to 12 inches ; branches numerous, slender, 

 ascending, drooping at the tips, usually in threes, or giving off branchlets at 

 the base, with linear acuminate, nerved, concave, silky, or hairy bracts, one 

 foot long or more ; flowers numerous, on rather long bracteolate pedicels ; 

 perianth rotate ; segments glabrate, ovate-lanceolate, membranous, claret- 

 coloured ; filaments short, subulate ; anthers oblong. Female. — Scape, bracts, 

 etc., as in the male, much branched ; branches strict ; flowers numerous, on 

 slender silky pedicels ; perianth small, rotate ; segments ovate ; ovary conical, 

 one-celled ; stigma trifid, somewhat elongated. Berry one-celled, globose, black ; 

 placentae scarcely perceptible ; seeds terete. 



On rocks. Little Barrier Island, Auckland. 



Flowers in April. 



The most elegant of the New Zealand forms ; the branches of the male 

 panicle are never interlaced as in typical A. Cunninghamii, so that it is readily 

 distinguished by the peculiar habit, and by the limited development of the 

 placentae in the mature fruit. The deep claret-coloured flowers are produced 

 in April, and the fruit requires over a year to arrive at maturity. 



Hamelinia veratroides, A. Bich., doubtfully quoted by Dr. Hooker as a 

 synonym of A. Banhsii, is identical with our plant, as is evident from the 

 fine drawing of the female scape, although the section of the ovary is that of 

 A. Banhsii. The diagnosis also appears to have been drawn up from specimens 

 of both forms. In Hooker's drawing the lower part of the scape is repi-e- 

 sented as stouter than the upper ; the reverse is the case in all the species, not 

 excepting A. grancUs. 



Dr. Hooker, referring to A. Cunninghamii, states, " Very like A. Banksii, 

 but differs in the larger flowers, ovary, fruit, and seeds." I find the opposite 

 to be invariably the case. A. Cunninghamii, with its globose berry and terete 

 seeds, is of smaller size in all its parts, and of more slender habit than A. 

 Banksii, with its ovoid berry and sharply angled seeds. 



Astelia grandis. Hook f. Ms. n. s. 



Stout, tufted ; leaves 2—6 feet long, erect, 2-4 inches wide, many-nerved, 

 with one principal nerve on each side of the leaf, about one-fourth of the 

 entire width of the leaf from each margin. Male. — Scape very stout, six 

 inches to 1-| feet high, thickening upwards to the base of the panicle where it 

 is sometimes \\ inches in diameter, triquetrous, hairy or downy ; panicle 

 4—12 inches long or more, much branched, flexuose ; bracts at the base of each 

 branch lanceolate acuminate, many-nerved, silky or downy below; sometimes 

 2 feet long or more, and over 2 inches wide ; branches stout, furrowed ; 

 flowers crowded on short pedicels, with ovate-lanceolate bi-acteolse ; perianth 

 rotate ; segments ovate-lanceolate, or ovate, ultimately recurved ; filaments 



H H 



