See Sketbbug. Occ. pers BP Bich Mu. 
x CCig) 1937 :- 234 
Fe . Fledd. Got Gch. Tand xv f 
320 LILIACEAE. |Dianella, 
style filiform; stigma minute. Fruit a globose berry. Seeds few, ovoid 
or compressed ; testa black, smooth and shining; albumen fleshy ; embryo 
small, linear. 
Species 11 or 12, chiefly Australian, but found also in New Zealand, Polynesia, 
tropical Asia, and the Mascarene Islands. The single New Zealand species extends to 
Norfolk Island and several parts of Polynesia. | 
1. D. intermedia Hndl. Prodi-FT. Ins. Norfolc. (1833) 28.— Rhizome 
stout, woody, creeping, usually with underground runners. Leaves 
numerous, crowded at the top of the rhizome, distichous and sheathing 
at the base, 14-3 ft. long or more, $-%in. wide, narrow linear-ensiform, 
acute or'acuminate, keeled, margins and keel minutely scabrid. Panicle 
*6-24 in. long, much branched ; peduncles and pedicels slender, the latter 
curved. Flowers small, +-4 in. diam. ; greenish or purplish-white. Perianth- 
segments oblong, spreading; the 3 outer usually 5-G-nerved ; the 3 inner 
rather broader, 3-nerved. Filaments expanded into a yellow or orange 
struma often thicker than the anther; anther linear-oblong, yellow. 
Berry 4-#in. long, broadly oblong, bright-blue—A. Cunn. Precur. (1836) 
n. 300; Raoul Choix (1846) 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 255; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 283; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. FI. (1906) 715. D. nigra 
Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) 339. —D. reflexa Col. le. xxvn Rail. 
es F | ce. nla, > 
+¥ Base 390: Kieu Ste n-var. Brow; _ Kacenra Gulch. Fle. a - §92P 
NortH AND SovutH Isuanps: From the Three Kings Islands and the North 
Cape to Foveaux Strait, abundant. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Turutu. Novem ber- 
a rrr LTNAL “th (19 was & Stak. eM te Ua) 2% 
6. PHORMIUM Forst. \2776 =e a pU.+2u 
Tall rigid and coriaceous herbs. Rhizome short, stout, branched, with 
thick and fleshy perpendicular rootlets. Leaves all radical, long, linear- 
ensiform, equitant and distichous, exceedingly tough and coriaceous. 
Flowering stem or scape tall, leafless, with alternate bracteate branches 
at the top; bracts caducous. Flowers pedicelled on the branches of a 
terminal panicle, dull-red or yellow; pedicels jointed. Perianth tubular, 
curved ; segments 6, connate at the base, free but connivent above; the 
3 outer lanceolate, erect, acute; the 3 inner rather longer, with spreading 
tips. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the segments and longer than 
them ; filaments filiform; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary sessile, oblong, 
obtusely trigonous, 3-celled; style slender, equalling or exceeding the 
stamens, declinate; stigma small, capitate; ovules numerous in each 
cell. Capsule subcoriaceous or almost membranous, oblong or linear, 
trigonous or almost terete, straight or twisted, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds 
many, oblong, greatly compressed ; testa black, shining. 
? 
Phormium, or the ‘‘ New Zealand flax,” is a very remarkable genus of 2 species, 
confined to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Its value as producing one of the strongest 
and most durable fibres of the vegetable kingdom is too well known to require recapitu- 
lation here. 
Leaves 3-9 ft., dark-green, glaucous beneath; margins usually bordered 
with a coloured line. Flowers dull-red. Capsule short, erect or 
inclined, trigonous, 2—4 in. long wy oy ee .. IL. P. tenaz. 
Leaves 2-5 ft., pale-green, less rigid ; margins seldom coloured. Flowers 
yellowish. Capsule long, pendulous, cylindrical, terete, twisted, 
4-7 in. long .. 2. P. Colensoi. 
