Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/38

This page has been validated.
16
FLORA ANTARCTICA.
[Auckland and

structure of the flower and fruit they totally differ, the former being truly an Azorella, and having the ciliated involucral leaves common to other species of that genus. The Az. daucoides, D'Urv. Fl. Ins. Mal. l.c. p. 613, is probably a true Caldasia, Lag.

Plate XI. fig. 1, flower; fig. 2, flower with the petals removed; fig. 3, petal; fig. 4, ripe fruit; fig. 5, transverse section of the same; fig. 6, front, and fig. 7, back view of seed; fig. 8, vertical section of the same showing the embryo; fig. 9, embryo removed:—all more or less magnified.


2. ANISOTOME, Hook. fil.

Flores dioici (seu polygami). Calycis margo 5-lobus; lobis (in flore steril.) patentibus, (in flore fert.) erectis, inæqualibus, persistentibus, 1–2 rarius 3 duplo longioribus lanceolatis, reliquis ovatis acutis. Petala obovata, acuta, v. acuminata, uninervia, brevissime unguiculata, patentia (lacinula inflexa nulla). Masc. Stamina' æqualia. Ovarium nullum. Stylopodia magna, depressa. Styli deficientes. Fœm. Fructus ovali-oblongus, lobis calycinis erectis coronatus. Mericarpia subteretia, inæqualia, quinquejuga; jugis alte carinatis alatis lateralibus marginantibus; unico (seminifero) jugis lateralibus dorsalique majoribus, altero (abortivo) jugis latera-libus dorsalique minoribus. Valleculæ univittatæ, vittæ crassiusculæ. Semen sulcatum, testa atro-fusca.—Herbæ subsucculentæ, elatæ, altitudinis humanæ, in insulis Auckland et Campbell provenientes. Caulis erectus, crassus, fistulosus, sulcatus. Folia maxima, longissime petiolata, bi-tripinnatisecta; segmentis latis vel angustis, mucronato-cuspidatis, marginatis. Petioli basi ventricoso-vaginantes. Umbellæ amplæ, pluries compositæ; vaginis maximis vix foliiferis bracteatis. Umbellulæ globose. Flores numerosissimi, rosei v. pallide purpurei. Involucra et involucella polyphylla, foliolis lanceolatis æqualibus.


1. Anisotome latifolia, Hook. fil.; foliis oblongis bipinnatisectis, segmentis obliquis ovato-oblongis imbricatis basi decurrentibus inæqualiter 3–5-fidis lobis acutis mucronato-aristatis pungentibus reticulatim venosis venis depressis, superioribus confluentibus. (Tab. VIII., and Tab. IX. & X. B.)

Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; in moist places from the sea to the tops of the mountains, abundant.

This is certainty one of the noblest plants of the natural order to which it belongs, often attaining a height of six feet, and bearing several umbels of rose-coloured or purplish flowers, each compound umbel as large as the human head. The foliage is of a deep shining green, and the whole plant emits, when bruised, an aromatic smell. The female flowers I have only seen in a specimen gathered by Mr. Lyall in Campbell's Island. They are of a peculiar structure, and show a striking affinity between this plant and the Aciphylla squarrosa, Forst. (Hook. Icon. Pl. vol. vii. t. 607, 608), especially in the unequal mericarps. Both the male and female flowers vary in the size of the calycine segments, which are however constantly unequal, one or more being much the largest and longest. In the male the styles are reduced to mere points on the inner margin of the depressed purple stylopodia; in the female the latter organs are conical, and terminate in long stout recurved styles, capitate at the extremity: this structure is common to Aciphylla, according to Forster's figure (Genera, t. 6S). In the description of the genus I have described what may be considered the normal form of the fruit, but it is liable to much variation, and the five ridges are seldom fully developed in both mericarps. The five lobes of the calyx always give origin to as many larger ridges, and these again vary in size according to the number of large lobes: the most fully developed segment of the calyx, whether lateral or dorsal on the mericarp, always being opposite to the larger ridge. Very generally there are three large lobes to the calyx (of the female flower), one near the back of one mericarp, and two lateral on the other; that with three has then five ridges, two large lateral, one (also large dorsal), and two intermediate smaller: the mericarp with only one large lobe has only four ridges; two lateral (one of which is from the small lobe and largest of these two), the other very large, from the larger tooth. These mericarps are about two lines long, of a fuscous yellow colour, are obscurely glandular, and the