658 UMBELLIFERAE. [Apium. 
slender petiole, thin and membranous, quite glabrous; leaflets petioled, 
the middle one 3-lobed at the apex, the lateral 2-dentate, more or less 
inequilateral ; obovate or orbicular-cuneate. Umbels much smaller than 
in A. prostratum, often peduncled ; secondary rays 5-15. Flowers small, 
white. Fruit variable in size; ribs thick and spongy.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. 1 (1853) 86; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 99. Petroselinum filiforme 
A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 278; A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) n. 504. 
A. prostratum var. filiforme T. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 196; Oheesem. 
Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 205. 
NortH AnD SoutH Istanps, Stewart Istanp: Not uncommon along the coast- 
line throughout. Inland by the Opuatia Creek and other localities in the Lower 
Waikato Valley, 7. Kirk, T. F. C. 
Although closely related to A, prostratum, to which I referred it in the first edition 
of this work, I now think that its differential characters are sufficient to maintain its: 
distinction as a separate species. 
TT: $49 ( (Gro) a 
TT. WT, 10. ACIPHYLLA Forst. 1776 
Krect and rigid usually spinescent glabrous perennials, often of large 
size. Leaves thick and coriaceous, pinnate or 2-3-pinnate, the rhachis 
transversely jointed at the insertion of the leaflets, leaf-segments usually 
ending in stout rigid spines. Umbels compound, in the axils of spinescent 
floral leaves or bracts, usually forming a more or less dense paniculate or 
spicate inflorescence; male umbels much more lax than the females. 
Flowers unisexual, usually dioecious. Calyx-teeth small or obsolete. 
Petals incurved, rarely with an inflexed tip. Stylopodia depressed in the 
male flowers, erect and conical in the female. Fruit oblong or linear- 
oblong; carpels with narrowly winged ridges, usually one 5-winged and 
the other 4-winged, or both 5-winged or 4-winged, or not rarely one carpel 
is 3-winged and the other 4-winged. Vittae 1-3 under each furrow and 
2-5 on the commissural face. — 
A genus confined to New Zealand, with the exception of two species found in the 
Australian Alps. It is mainly characterized by its remarkably distinct habit and 
spinescent leaves and bracts; but the flowers and fruit are very similar to those of 
Anisotome, and, to a smaller extent, to those of the northern genus Ligusticum. The 
three genera were in fact united by Bentham in the “Genera Plantarum,” but this 
course has not been generally adopted by botanists. 
The New Zealand species of Aciphylla are very difficult of discrimination, and 
much has yet to be done before a stable arrangement of the species can be arrived at. 
In the first edition of this work 12 species were admitted ; in the present edition I have 
had to increase that number to 25, and there are still four or five others in my own 
herbarium or Mr. Petrie’s which may prove to be distinct. A preliminary notice of 
- one of these has been given by Mr. Petrie under the name of A. Crosby-Smithii (Trans. 
N.Z. Inst. xlvii (1915) 48). Mr. Petrie compares it with A. Spedeni, but it does not 
seem to me to show any close affinity with that plant. Until flowering or fruiting 
specimens are obtained it is almost impossible to trace the true. relationships of the 
plant. 
A, Tall and stout, 2-5 ft. or more. Inflorescence a dense linear-oblong panicle, often. 
several feet in length, 
2-8ft. high, Leaves 1-2-pinnate; leaflets broad, 4-3 in., 
excessively rigid and spinous. Middle lobe of bract not 
refracted rs x es re ns -. IL, A, Colensoi. 
2-6ft. high. Leaves 2-3-pinnate; leaflets narrow, 4-4 in. 
broad. Middle lobe of bract refracted .. oF -. 2. A, squarrosa. 
