5. A. Lyallii, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 92.—Erect, smooth and shining. Stems 1–2 ft. high or more, ⅓–⅔ in. diam. at the base, deeply grooved. Leaves numerous, 4–12 in. long, pinnate; leaflets 5–9, 3–9 in. long, 112–15 broad, very narrow-linear, acuminate, gradually narrowed into spinous points, rigid and coriaceous, striate; margins minutely serrulate; sheaths rather narrow, produced at the top into two long spines. Inflorescence forming a linear-oblong spike-like panicle. Bracts with broad sheaths and 3–5 spinous leaflets. Male umbels on slender peduncles 1–3 in. long; female on much shorter peduncles, almost concealed in the sheaths of the bracts. Fruit narrow-oblong, 15 in. long; carpels 4–5-winged. Vittæ 1–2 in the interspaces, 2–4 on the commissural face.—Hemsl. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 2556; Kirk, Students' Fl. 209. A. montana, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iv. (1872) 290.
Var. crenulata.—Rather taller, much less rigid and coriaceous. Leaves sometimes almost flaccid; margins serrulate; midrib often bright-red. Inflorescence more open, with longer and more leafy bracts. Carpels 4-winged, or one 3-winged.— A. crenulata, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 336; Kirk, Students' Fl. 208.
South Island: The typical form apparently rare. Rangitata Range and Ashburnham Glacier, Haast; Mount Ida, Petrie! H. J. Matthews! Humboldt Mountains, Cockayne! Var. crenulata: Not uncommon on the central and western slopes of the Southern Alps, from Mount Arthur, Nelson, to Lake Wanaka. 3000—5000 ft. December—January.
6. A. Hectori, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 346, t. 27.—Stem 10—16 in. high, stout, deeply grooved. Leaves numerous, 3—6 in. long, trifoliolate or rarely pinnate with 2 pairs of leaflets;, leaflets 1½—4 in. long, 16–15 in. broad, narrow-linear, suddenly narrowed into a spinous point, smooth, rigid and coriaceous, striate: margins thickened, entire or serrulate; sheaths long, narrow] produced at the top into 2 very long leaflets almost equalling the leaves proper. Inflorescence forming a contracted spike-like panicle 2–5 in. long. Male umbels on slender peduncles; female on much shorter ones, crowded in the axils of the bracts. Bracts with long narrow sheaths and 3 narrow spinous leaflets. Carpels linear-oblong, 3–5-winged.
South Island: Otago—Hector's Col, near Mount Aspiring, Buchanan; Mount Kyehnrn, H. J. Matthews! 4000–5000 ft. January–February.
Mr. Kirk reduced this to A. Lyallii in the "Students' Flora," but it differs from that species in the trifoliolate leaves, and in the leaflets at the top of the leaf-sheath being almost as long as the leaves proper, whereas they do not reach the base of the lowest pinnule in A. Lyallii. It is much nearer to A. Traillii which may be a depauperated state of it.
7. A. Traillii, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 371.—Small, 3–7 in. high, clothed below with the bases of the old leaves. Leaves 2–4 in. long, simple or 3-foliolate, or rarely pinnate with 2 pairs of leaflets and a terminal one; leaflets 1–3 in. long, 112–18 in.
