silky hairs. Male flowers: Scape very stout, erect, 6 in. to 2 ft. long, thickening upwards to the base of the panicle, where it is sometimes 1½ in. diam., obtusely triquetrous, lower portion shaggy with copious long silky hairs, upper part silky or glabrate. Panicle 4–16 in. long, much branched; bracts very long, lanceolate, acuminate. Flowers scattered, dark-green or purplish-green, sweet-scented, ⅓–½ in. diam.; pedicels 110–16 in. long. Perianth-segments ovate-lanceolate, spreading, ultimately reflexed. Stamens equalling the segments; filaments subulate; anthers broadly oblong. Female flowers: Scape as in the male but shorter; panicle much shorter and more compact; branches short, stiff, erect. Flowers smaller, crowded, purplish-black, pedicels very short. Perianth segments smaller, reflexed. Ovary broadly conical, faintly grooved,, 3-celled; ovules numerous, attached to the inner angle of the cells. Berry globose, ½–⅔ in. diam., orange-yellow, base enclosed in the persistent and enlarged tube of the perianth, which is also coloured yellow inside. Seeds 2–5 in each cell, smooth, black, sharply angled.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 284. A. grandis, Hook. f. ex T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iv. (1872) 245. A. fragrans, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xv. (1883) 333.
Var. montana, Kirk, MS.—Smaller in all its parts. Leaves rigid, usually silky on both surfaces, sometimes villous. Scape shorter and panicle smaller, but flowers apparently the same as in the type.—A. Petriei, Cockayne in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 419.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 4500 ft. October–January.
An excessively variable plant. Banks and Solander's description and drawing, which must be taken to represent the type, exactly match a large broad-leaved form, common in many lowland districts in both the North and South Islands, which has been described as a distinct species under the name of A. grandis. Sylvestral states of this have longer and narrower softer leaves, with a longer and more slender male panicle, but the flowers and fruit present no differences of importance. At higher altitudes, and particularly in exposed localities, the leaves are smaller, narrower, and often rigid, and usually much more silky or villous than the type. Further research may disclose characters sufficient to separate this as a species.
5. DIANELLA, Lam.
Glabrous perennial herbs. Rootstock often branched. Leaves numerous, crowded at the base of the stem, linear, distichous, equitant and sheathing at the base. Flowers pedicellate, nodding, laxly cymose; cymes arranged in a broad open terminal panicle. Perianth marcescent; segments 6, distinct, spreading. Stamens 6, hypogynous, or the 3 inner affixed to the base of the segments; filaments thickened; anthers erect or recurved, basifixed, opening by terminal pores or short longitudinal slits. Ovary sessile or shortly stalked, 3-celled; ovules 4–8 in each cell; style filiform; stigma minute. Fruit a globose berry. Seeds few, ovoid or compressed; testa black, smooth and shining; albumen fleshy; embryo small, linear.
