trees or on rocks. Leaves very numerous, spreading and recurved, 2–5 ft. long, 1½–3 in. wide at the middle, linear-ensiform, narrowed above into a long acuminate point, suddenly expanded below into a sheathing base sometimes 4–5 in. across, conspicuously 3-nerved, glabrous and deeply channelled in front, keeled and with a thin white silvery pellicle beneath; sheathing base black, at the extreme base white and fleshy, glabrous or clothed with copious long white silky hairs. Male flowers: Scape stout, much shorter than the leaves, densely silky below, panicled; branches few, 5–8, simple, 3–9 in. long, 1 in. broad with the flowers on; bracts at the base of the branches very large, leafy, acuminate. Flowers very numerous, densely crowded, ½ in. long, pale lemon-yellow; pedicels slender, ¼ in., each subtended by a linear bract. Perianth 6-partite; segments reflexed, linear, obtuse, silky externally. Stamens as long as the segments; anthers linear, erect, sagittate at the base. Female flowers: Scape stout, branched as in the male; but branches longer and more slender, sometimes 12–14 in. long by ¾ in. diam., usually drooping in fruit. Flowers much smaller; perianth with a hemispherical tube closely surrounding the ovary; segments reflexed. Ovary globose, 3-celled; ovules numerous, attached to the inner angles of the cells. Berry rather small, ⅕ in. diam., globose, bright-red. Seeds small, obovoid, slightly curved, not angled, black.—Raoul, Choix, 40; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 260; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 284; Bot. May. t. 5503. A. microsperma, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 251. A. albicans, Col. l.c. 252. A. hastata, Col. l.c. xix. (1887) 265.
North Island: Abundant in forests throughout. South Island: Marlborough—Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander; Pelorus Valley, Rutland, Macmahon! Nelson—Common on the West Coast, from Collingwood southwards. Sea-level to 2700 ft. Kahakaha. January–February.
A very distinct species, at once known by the broad almost glabrous 3-nerved leaves with a nearly black sheathing base, by the densely placed flowers, the males being much longer and narrower than in any other species, and by the small red globose berry. It is a conspicuous plant in all the forest districts of the North Island, from its habit of growing perched high up on the limbs of tall forest-trees, where it forms huge tufts resembling the nests of some gigantic bird, for which, in fact, it was mistaken when first seen by Cook and his officers in 1769.
6. A. nervosa, Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 260.—Stout, densely tufted, often forming large masses in moist or boggy ground. Leaves numerous, spreading, 2-5 or even up to 8 ft. long, ½–3 in. broad, or in large specimens as much as 4 in., linear-lanceolate or linear-ensiform, acuminate, dilated at the sheathing base, coriaceous, many-nerved, one nerve on each side stouter than the rest and with the midrib often coloured red, glabrous above or rarely silky, beneath more or less scurfy or clothed with silky appressed hairs, rarely almost glabrous; margins recurved, usually silky; sheathing base densely villous with long
