long, narrow-linear, acute, curved, rigid, coriaceous, flat above, midrib prominent beneath. Head solitary, J^in. diam., sunk amongst the uppermost leaves; involucral bracts linear, obtuse, coriaceous, nerved. Style of the disc-florets bifid. Achenes of the female florets linear-clavate, 4-angled.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 332. Trineuron pusillum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 131.
North Island: Snowy places on the Ruahine Mountains, Colenso!
This species has not been collected since its original discovery, more than fifty years ago. I have only seen a fragment of one of the type specimens, and the above description is based upon that given by Hooker.
7. A. muscosa, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 422, t. 36.—Stems very minute, ⅕–¼ in. high, either solitary or forming dense patches ½–1 in. diam. Leaves closely imbricating, erect, 18–17 in. long, linear or linear-oblong, truncate or retuse at the tip; upper half excessively coriaceous and rigid, somewhat concave, margins much thickened and cartilaginous; lower half membranous, sheathing. Heads minute, solitary, concealed amongst the uppermost leaves; involucral bracts 5, oblong, obtuse or acute or apiculate, nerveless or nearly so. Florets 4–8; females narrow, cylindrical, obscurely toothed at the mouth; disc-florets tubular, 4-toothed. Achenes oblong, truncate above, setose, obscurely tetragonous, with a long bristle at each angle.—Students Fl. 332.
Stewart Island: Summit of Rakiahua, 2300 ft., Kirk! January.
A very remarkable little plant, closely allied to A. emarginata, Cass., from the Falkland Islands. It is one of the smallest flowering plants in the colony, and in a barren state might easily be mistaken for a Bryum or Tortula.
19. ERECHTITES, Rafin.
Erect annual or perennial herbs, cottony or glabrous. Leaves alternate, toothed or lobed or pinnately divided, rarely entire. Heads narrow, in terminal corymbs, heterogamous and discoid. Involucre cylindric; bracts in 1 series, linear, equal, appressed, sometimes with a few small ones at the base. Receptacle flat, naked. Female florets in 2–3 rows at the circumference, very slender, filiform, minutely 3–5-toothed. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, fewer in number than the females, tubular with a broad 5-toothed mouth. Anthers obtuse at the base. Style-branches of the disc-florets elongated, truncate at the tip. Achenes linear-oblong, obtuse or contracted towards the apex, striate or angular. Pappus-hairs in many series, copious, soft, excessively slender.
A genus of about 15 species, mainly Australasian and South American; but one species is found in North America, and another in Java. Three of the New Zealand species extend to Australia and Tasmania; the remaining three are endemic.
