spinescent, narrowed into a broad flat petiole. Cauline leaves much smaller, opposite, cuneate or linear-cuneate, with fewer spinous teeth. Peduncles radical or from the nodes, ½–2 in. long, bearing a single globose or broadly ovoid head ½–¾ in. diam. Involucral bracts linear or lanceolate, rigid and spinous, spreading, far exceeding the flowers. Calyx-tube densely scaly.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 85; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 90; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 370.
North and South Islands: On sandy beaches from the East Cape to the north of Otago, but often local. December–January. Also in Australia and Tasmania.
4. ACTINOTUS, Labill.
Annual or perennial herbs, erect and branching or low and densely tufted. Leaves toothed, lobed or ternately divided. Umbels simple, with an involucre of spreading bracts. Calyx-limb 5-toothed, rarely inconspicuous. Petals 5, ungaiculate or spathulate or wanting. Ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled; styles 2, often united at the base. Fruit ovate, of a single carpel, compressed from front to back; ribs 5, often obscure.
A small genus of about 10 species, confined to Australia and New Zealand. It is remarkable for the 1-celled ovary and single carpel of the fruit.
1. A. novæ-zealandiæ, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. [[Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/Transactions and Proceedings of the New Zealand Institute/Volume 13/Article 40#324|xiii. (1881) 324.—Small, densely tufted. Stems creeping, interlaced and matted, forming flat compact patches. Branches villous or shaggy with soft white hairs. Leaves 112–16 long, oblong or oblong-spathulate, narrowed into a long sheathing petiole, quite entire, coriaceous and fleshy, glandular at the apex, glabrous or with a pencil of hairs at the tip. Peduncle ¼–¾ in. long, usually villous with soft spreading hairs, naked or with a single bract towards the top. Involucral bracts usually 5, broadly ovate or almost rounded, obtuse. Flowers 4–5. Calyx-limb apparently wanting. Petals absent. Stamens 2. Carpels somewhat compressed, convex on the outer face, obscurely ribbed.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 195. A. bellidioides, Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 369 (in part). Hemiphues suffocata. Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. (1847) 471. H. bellidioides var. suffocata, Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 158, t. 36a.
South Island: Nelson—Mountains near the Heaphy River, Dall! Mount Rochfort, Rev. F. H. Spencer! W. Townson! Otago—Blue Mountains, Petrie! Longwood Range, Kirk! Stewart Island: Apparently not uncommon, Petrie! Thomson! Kirk! Sea-level to 3500 ft. Also in Tasmania.
5. APIUM, Linn.
Erect or prostrate glabrous herbs. Leaves ternately or pinnately divided. Umbels compound, leaf-opposed or terminal. Involucral bracts usually wanting. Flowers white. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Petals ovate, concave, usually inflected at the tip. Fruit
