22 
AUSTRALASIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 
sheathing, purplish-red; laminae 6-7 foliolate, obovate or obovate-oblong, obtuse, 
deeply and coarsely serrate-dentate, firm in texture but not coriaceous; lower pairs 
much reduced in size, sometimes almost petioled, the upper two or three pairs the 
largest, 1-5 cm. long, rarely more, green on both sides, upper surface glabrous or 
very slightly pilose, lower surface and rhachis pilose with silky hairs. Scapes 8-14 cm. 
long, stout, erect, smooth and glabrous, reddish-purple. Flowers hermaphrodite in all 
the specimens seen by me. Sepals 4, oblong, obtuse or subacute, sparingly pilose on 
the outside, 5 mm. long. Anthers 4, filaments exceeding the sepals when mature, 
broadly oblong, 1-75-2 mm. long, 1-5-1-75 mm. broad, dark purple. Spines 4, subequal, 
about 7-8 mm. long, exceeding the sepals, furnished with yellowish barbs at the top, 
shaft smooth, dark purple. Stigma bilaterally plumose, 4 mm. long. 
Macquarie Island ;—Common near the sea, but also ascending to a considerable 
height on the hills. Fraser; Scott (1880); A. Hamilton (1894); H. Hamilton (1912-1913). 
Accena adscendens was collected on Macquarie Island prior to 1830, together 
with A. Bangui sorbce and several other plants, by the master of some sealing vessel, 
who handed his specimens to Mr. C. Fraser, then Superintendent of the Sydney Botanic 
Gardens. By him they were forwarded to Sir W. J. Hooker at Kew, the collection 
being the first received from any of the islands to the south of New Zealand. 
Mr. H. Hamilton’s collection includes three excellent sheets of specimens. The 
first, labelled as the “ largest form,” was collected on “ terraces near the sea” at the 
north end of the island, and agrees wonderfully well with the fine plate of A. adscendens 
given by Hooker in the Flora Antarctica. The two other sheets, one from “ Wireless 
Hill, alt. 300 ft.” and the other from “ Hillside, but no great distance from the sea,” 
although both much smaller in size, nevertheless correspond so closely in all essential 
characters that I can see no reason for separating them as varieties. 
A. adscendens is one of the most widely distributed species of the genus. It 
is found in Patagonia, Fuegia, Falkland Island, Kerguelen Island, Crozets, and South 
Georgia. Some specimens from the mountains of the South Islands of New Zealand 
were also referred to it by Hooker in the “ Handbook.” But most botanists now con¬ 
sider these to be distinct; and Bitter, in his recently published monograph of the genus, 
has described them as new species under the names of A. saccaticupida, A. hirsutula, 
and A. fssistipula. The two latter, however, are doubtfully distinct from one another. 
Accena Sanguisorb^e Vaid var. minor Hook. /. 
Accena BanguisorbceN aid var. minor Hook. f. FI. Antarct, I (1844), p. 9; Cockayne in 
Trans. N. Z. Inst. XL1X (1917), p. 56; Accena Sanguisorbce Valil var. antcirctica 
Cockayne in Trans. N. Z. Inst. XXXVI (1904), p. 319; Cheesem. Subantarctic 
Islands of N. Z. II (1909), p. 403; Accena Sanguis orb ce Vahl var. aucklandica Bitter 
Monog. der Gattung Accena (1910), p. 274. 
