Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/250

The very narrow leaflets and numerous bracts with long and narrow spinous segments, the middle one of which is sharply refracted, easily distinguish this from all the forms of A. Colensoi. Both species yield an aromatic gum resin, which was formerly used by the Maoris as a masticatory.

3. A. Traversii, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 729.—Stem stout, erect, 1–3 ft. high, 1–2 in. diameter at the base, grooved, purplish below. Radical leaves numerous, 6–30 in. long, pinnate; leaflets 2–4 pairs, 4–15 in. long, 1/6–1/2 in. broad, narrow-linear, pungent-pointed, coriaceous, striate, conspicuously transversely articulate, margins smooth or nearly so; petioles 4–10 in. long, sheaths broad, terminated by 2 short spines above. Bracts with a broad rather membranous sheath tipped with a simple or 3-fid leaflet; lobes hardly pungent. Umbels very numerous, solitary or two together in the axils of the bracts; males on peduncles 1–5 in. long, forming a rather open panicle; females on much shorter stalks and inflorescence much more dense. Flowers often polygamous. Fruit narrow linear-oblong, 2/5 in. long; carpels one 4-winged and the other 3-winged. Vittæ 1–2 in the interspaces and 3–5 on the commissural face.—Kirk, Students Fl. 208. Gingidium Traversii, F. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is. 18.

Chatham Islands: H. H. Travers, Captain G. Mair, F. A. D. Cox! Taramea. November–December.

Closely allied to A. Colensoi, from which it principally differs in the less rigid and transversely jointed leaf-segments, thinner and scarcely pungent bracts, and narrower fruit.

4. A. Hookeri, T. Kirk, Students' Fl. 209.—Erect, 4–12 in. high. Root long, stout, fusiform. Radical leaves numerous, often curved outwards at the tip, 2–8 m. long, pinnate or 2-pinnate; primary leaflets 2–5 pairs, crowded or rather remote, ½–1½ in. long, simple or forked or trifid or pinnately divided; segments ¼–¾ in. long, linear, spreading or squarrose, flat, grooved above, rigid and coriaceous, narrowed into a spinous point. Petiole more than half the length of the blade, weak and flaccid below, with a long narrow membranous sheath produced into two short spines at the top. Male scape short, leafy below; bracts numerous, with long membranous sheaths and pinnately divided rigid acicular tips, the lowest sometimes 3 in. long. Umbels numerous, compound, on slender peduncles equalling or shorter than the bract-sheath; rays unequal. Female umbels much smaller, densely packed, forming a narrow contracted panicle; bracts much shorter. Fruit linear-oblong, 1/5 in. long; carpels 4–5-ribbed.

South Island: Nelson—Mountains near the source of the Heaphy River, Dall! Mount Faraday and Mount Buckland (near Westport), W. Townson! 2500–4500 ft. December–February.

A very singular and distinct species. It can be recognised at once by the short flat almost squarrose leaf-segments.