blunt points, the outer with a row of short spines down the median line. Florets numerous, purplish. Achenes large, broad, spongy, with 3–6 longitudinal ribs; margins broad.—Students Fl. 362.
Chatham Islands: Enys! Cox! January–February.
A very handsome and distinct species, endemic in the Chatham Islands.
Order XXXIX. STYLIDIEÆ.
Herbs, rarely undershrubs. Leaves alternate, scattered or densely imbricate, entire; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, irregular or almost regular. Calyx adnate to the ovary; lobes usually 5, free or connate into two lips. Corolla gamopetalous, 5-lobed; the lobes subregular and equal in the New Zealand genera, but in the bulk of the order the lowest lobe is smaller and narrower and recurved, and is known as the labellum. Stamens 2; filaments united with the style into a column; anthers sessile at the top of the column. Ovary inferior, more or less completely 2-celled, usually crowned with 1 or 2 fleshy glands. Stigma at the apex of the column, entire or 2-lobed, hidden between the anthers or protruding from between them. Ovules numerous in each cell, attached to the dissepiment or to a central axis, anatropous. Fruit a 1–2-celled capsule, dehiscent or indehiscent. Seeds numerous or few by abortion, minute; albumen fleshy; embryo very minute, next the hilum.
A small order, comprising 5 genera and about 110 species, mainly confined to Australia, 97 species being endemic therein. Of the 3 New Zealand genera, Oreostylidum is endemic; Phyllachne extends to antarctic South America; while Forstera has a single species in Tasmania in addition to the 3 New Zealand ones.
| A. Stems densely matted, forming hard bright-green convex patches. Capsule turbinate. | |
| Leaves densely imbricated. Flowers sessile among the leaves at the tips of the branches | 1. Phyllachne. |
| B. Stems not forming compact patches. Capsule ovoid or oblong. | |
| Stems short. Leaves tufted, squarrose, subulate. Scapes shorter than the leaves. Calyx 2-lipped | 2. Oreostylidium. |
| Stems slender, branched. Scapes long. Calyx 5–6-lobed, not bilabiate | 3. Forstera. |
1. PHYLLACHNE, Forst.
Densely tufted perfectly glabrous moss-like plants, forming hard and compact flat or convex masses in alpine localities. Leaves small, closely imbricating. Flowers sessile among the leaves at the tips of the branches, monœcious or polygamo-diœcious. Calyx-tube obconic; lobes 5–9, equal or slightly unequal. Corolla almost regular; tube short; limb spreading, with 4–9 subequal
