Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/60

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38
FLORA ANTARCTICA.
[Auckland and

cortice tenaci e fibris crassis parallelis tomento denso albido adpresso vestito, foliis alternis petiolatis amplis 8 pollicares ad pedalem longis late elliptico-ovatis acutis v. acuminatis crenato-dentatis valde coriaceis supra (costa basi excepta) glaberrimis læte viridibus nervis reticulatis subtus tomento appresso dense lanatis, venis prominulis, junioribus ad apices ramulorum convolutis lanatis basique dense argenteo-sericeis pilis longioribus, petiolo valido ½ unc. longo basi dilatato semiamplexicauli tomentoso ½ unc. longo.—Cætera ignota.

Hab. Lord Auckland's group; Ewing Island, a small islet at the mouth of Rendezvous Harbour, D. Lyall, Esq.

Of this plant Mr. Lyall remarks, "A short stout trunk rises a few inches above the ground, and then sends off horizontally patent branches, which radiate as from a common centre for 10 or 12 feet on all sides, a little above the surface of the earth. The leafy apices then ascend. The leaves are of a dark green colour, which they lose in drying." A piece of the wood which accompanied the specimen is about 1½ inch in diameter; the bark of a light grey colour, rather thin and soft, deeply grooved on the surface, the grooves corresponding to sinuous, anastomosing, longitudinal ridges, enclosing elongated, somewhat lozenge-shaped spaces; the wood is whitish or pale yellow, hard, tough and close-grained, the layers indistinct, and the medullary rays numerous and very slender; it resembles the stem of some shrubby species of Ozothamnus. This fine plant is most remarkable for the size and thick coriaceous texture of the leaves, which are in many respects similar to those of the genus Brachyglottis, Forst. I have seen nothing like it in the collections of Banks and Solander, Forster or Menzies. It is a rare plant in the islands now under consideration, and will probably be found to be a native of the southern extremity of New Zealand.



XVI. STYLIDIEÆ, Br.

1. FORSTERA, L.

Flores monoici v. dioici. Calyx basi bibracteolatus, limbo 3-6-partito, segmentis erectis. Corolla tubuloso-campanulata, tubo brevi v. elongato, limbo 4–9-partito, segmentis inæqualibus, æstivatione imbricatis, 1–2 ext. majoribus, patulis concavis, fauce nuda v. glanduloso-incrassata. Glandulæ epigynæ 2, oppositæ, semilunares, staminibus alternæ. Antheræ ad apicem columnar oppositæ, divaricatæ, reniformes, spurie biloculares, rima transversali dehiscentes, valvula superiore majore fornicata. Pollen 3-5-angulatum. Stylus iutra columnam occlusus. Stigma (v. apex styli) minimum, 2-lobum (an 4-lobum?), ramis floribus fertilibus porrectis, superne villosis v. subplumosis. Ovarium obovatum, carnosum, uniloculare, rarius biloculare, multiovulatum, ovulis columnæ centrali funiculis brevibus adnexis, ascendentibus. Capsula ovalis, unilocularis.—Herbæ parvæ, perennes, glabræ, coriaceo-carnosæ, antarcticæ seu montibus altissmus Novæ Zelandiæ provenientes. Folia imbricata. Flores in summos ramos sessiles, v. pedunculos elongates solitarii v. bini.—Endl.

§ Helophyllum, Hook. fil.; floribus sessilibus solitariis, calycis limbo 5-6-partilo, lobis æqualibus, foliorum apicibus nodoso-incrassatis.


1. Forstera clavigera, Hook. fil.; densissime et compacte cæpitosa, caulibus erectis parce ramosis, foliis arete imbricatis semiteretibus apicibus nodoso-incrassatis, floribus terminalibus sessilibus solitariis. (Tab. XXVIII.)

Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; on the mountains in turfy and boggy places, very common.

Caules erecti, stricti, parce ramosi, densissime compacti, cæspites firmos fragiles formantes, per totam longitudinem foliosi, hinc illinc axillis foliorum radices fibrosas emittentes, fibris validis elongatis fuscis horizontaliter patentibus carnosis simpliciusculis, et deorsum in radices subsimiles gradatim attenuatæ, 1½–2 polli-