Joseph Dalton Hooker

“ In all the four species of the genus with which I am acquainted, the style of the flowers of the ray is invested, or sheathed loosely, by a very delicate hyaline tube, marked, in several instances, by distinct slender nerves, always five in number. This tube enlarges around the swollen bulb of the style and is inserted underneath it into the apex of the achænium: at its summit it meets the inflated corolla, and in the form of a membrane or tissue completely continuous with it, they together constitute the four obtuse, inconspicuous, rounded lobes of the corolla. ”

“ The whole plant has a heavy and rather disagreeable rank smell, common to many of its Nat. Order, but is nevertheless greedily eaten by goats, pigs and rabbits.
Beautiful as is the plate of Aralia polaris in the French South Polar Voyage above quoted, and faithfully as it represents the leaf and umbel, the insertion of both immediately upon the rooting stem, without the intervention of branches, and the absence of the great ligules, are quite unlike what is exhibited by my specimens. ”

“ The Flora of these islands is closely related to that of New Zealand, and does not partake in any of those features which characterize Australian vegetation. Most of the plants may indeed be presumed to exist on the unexplored mountains, especially those of the middle and southern islands, of New Zealand; but others are doubtless peculiar to those higher southern latitudes which they inhabit, thus being analogous to those few novel forms that appear only in the most arctic parts of America. ”

“ Becoming stunted and much branched from the violence of the perennial gales, they offer as powerful an obstacle to the traveller here as the beeches do in Tierra del Fuego. In both cases it is almost equally impossible to penetrate them; but, extraordinary as it may appear, their branches are so gnarled and densely matted, that their flat summits will often bear the human weight, and almost admit of walking upon them. ”

“ Amongst the plants collected in Lord Auckland's group, are two apparently belonging to the natural order Compositæ, but which, in the absence of flower or fruit, I am unable to place under any genus. One of these may belong to Gnaphalium, but is quite different from any New Zealand or other species which has come under my notice. The only specimen of it which I possess was gathered by Mr. Lyall, and consists of apparently a few radical leaves, or probably of a young plant whose stems are not yet produced upwards. ”

“ Sometimes even the flower is solitary and axillary; generally several spring together from the side or apex of a stem, subtended by a leaf; sometimes a pedicel appears proliferous, running out into a stem and bearing a fascicle or corymb and a leaf at its apex: so that the inflorescence has little the appearance of that of a cruciferous plant. ”

“ Even between the floras of Lord Auckland's and Campbell's Islands a marked difference exists, several species growing most abundantly in the latter which are not found at all in the former, where also the proportion of species common to other Antarctic countries is less, and the affinity is greater with the productions of New Zealand. ”

“ The climate is rainy and very stormy, so that on the windward sides the plants are stunted and checked, and resemble those of a higher southern latitude, or of an elevation several hundred feet above that which the same species inhabit on the sheltered parts. The whole group of islands appears formed of volcanic rocks, mostly of black trap, whose decomposition, especially among the ranker vegetation of the lower grounds, produces a deep rich soil. ”

“ The stems, or rather scapes (for they remain withered stalks after the fall of the fruit) , arise also from the top of this root, and are branched, twice or thrice as long as the radical leaves; they bear a few flowers with white petals, which are succeeded by the narrow elongated receptacle, hispid as it were with the persistent stipites of the carpels. It is this character which it has in common with a very arctic species, the S. Rossii, Br., together with the very short styles, that induces me to place it in Sieversia; for the style seems too short ever to be geniculated. ”

“ The leaves are extremely variable in breadth and in the degree of recurving in their margins; they are often very like those of C. longifolia, but never exceed a span in length. The scapes too are longer, less leafy, and the flowers larger than in that species; the hairy achænia also afford a constant character. The flowers of the ray are pink, the pappus yellow. The above three species are Australian. Those found in New Zealand are C. gracilenta (4.) ”

“ I am not aware of any other species exhibiting 4 nucules.
The prevalence of Rubiaceæ in these islands is a very singular fact in botanical geography; ranking as they do in number of species next only to Compositæ among Dicotyledonous plants, and almost equalling them both numerically and in the amount of space they occupy. In Antarctic America they are represented by a very few Stellatæ, which group is here entirely absent. ”

“ The ultimate branches, which bear a few leaves, are angular and covered with a loose white papery cuticle, which turns yellow in drying. The leaves are of a lurid but shining green, more yellow on the under surface, and there covered with large yellow glands. Petals when young white with red tips, in the more expanded state crimson, as are the stamens. The inflorescence in this, as in all other New Zealand species, is in umbels or corymbs. ”

“ Growing in large orbicular masses, on rocks and banks near the sea, or amongst the dense and gloomy vegetation of the woods, its copious bright green foliage and large umbels of waxy flowers, often nearly a foot in diameter, have a most striking appearance. ”

“ In general appearance it very closely resembles the R. lappaceus, Sm., of Tasmania and the northern parts of New Zealand, a species which varies much in size, in the form of the leaves, and in the nature of the pubescence. The R. subscaposus is more slender in habit, with the hairs always closely appressed and of a tawny yellow colour; but the most important distinction lies in the form and size of the petals, which in R. lappaceus are much larger than the calyx and very broadly obovato-cuneate, with a large triangular fleshy nectary at the very base ”

“ Like other species however of the same genus, the plant is probably a very variable one. Mr. Cunningham quotes the E. pendulum, Sol., as a synonym of E. nummularifolium, R. Cunn., a species very nearly allied to the present, but larger, with distinctly crenate leaves, and having the capsules hoary with a white down. In habit and foliage this plant resembles the Anagallis tenella, L., and as well as many of the New Zealand species, it has a peculiarly creeping mode of growth, which none of those of the northern hemisphere possess. ”

“ The base of the style is peculiarly incrassated, especially in the female flower, having the base of the corolla swollen around it, and the thickened portion often forms a depressed sphere, in which the style seems to be inserted, and it sometimes assumes the appearance of a fleshy ring or corona, surmounting the top of the ovary. ”

“ It differs from all other species of the genus Helichrysum, DeC, in the prostrate straggling habit, and in the stems, which are scarcely thicker than a sparrow's quill, being leafy throughout their length, irregularly branched, with the branches divaricating, ascending at their apices, and there bearing the solitary capitula; whereas the Australian species particularly are of an erect growth, those of a more herbaceous habit with larger, as it were radical leaves at the base of the stem. ”

“ It is further to be remarked, that though the genus is extensively distributed throughout Australia and Tasmania, where it does not inhabit the mountains, in New Zealand it is represented by the present species alone, which is confined to the most elevated mountains of the Northern Island, and only descends to the lower grounds in a much higher southern and more rigorous latitude. ”

“ It is still more remarkable that so acute and very accurate an observer should have been unable to detect the glands at the base of the column, which in both my specimens are exceedingly large, and project upwards like two horns from the top of the ovarium for half the length and upwards of the tube of the corolla, and whose apices in the young state of the flower lie between the anthers. ”

“ It is indeed so abundant in the marshy spots on the latter islands that these animals frequently live entirely amongst it, especially when it grows near the margins of the woods, where they form broad tracks or runs through the patches, grubbing up the roots to a great extent, and by trampling down the soft stems and leaves use them as soft and warm forms to litter in. ”

“ I have also described the corolla as somewhat two-lipped, a character not very evident in all instances, and depending upon the inequality and comparative size of the segments; one or two are almost invariably larger than the rest, and external in æstivation; when there are two large lobes they are placed near one another; and when the corolla has more than five segments, these two are subdivided into four by short sinuses; where only four segments exist, it is caused by the union of two of the small lobes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In all the plants of the genus which I have examined, the heads of flowers are monœcious; but the flowers of the disc especially, being all males, are, after the performance of their functions, easily displaced by pressure. ”

“ One of the most handsome and singular of the vegetable productions in the group of islands it inhabits, which certainly contains a greater proportion of large and beautiful plants, relatively to the whole vegetation, than any country with which I am acquainted. ”

“ The glands, so conspicuous in this and some of the other species, appear to be conglobate and formed of about four very prominent papillæ, confluent at their margins; in this species and in L. scariosa they are transparent, but in L. lanata, after drying, they turn opake and whitish. I observed that in the fresh state they contained no evident secretion or essential oil, nor can they be connected in any way with the peculiar odour which several of the species possess, as this is inodorous or nearly so, and L. plumosa, which smells strongly, is unprovided with these organs. ”

“ In the three known species of Anisotome, all the parts connected with the inflorescence are subject to much irregular metamorphosis and monstrous development, the more important of which, as observed in the living plants of A. latifolia and A. antipoda, are the following:—1st, the segments of the partial involucra become shrivelled, assuming the forms of peduncles, and bear at their apices stylopodia with distorted calycine segments, or more perfect flowers with a reduced number of parts ”

“ All the species have the anthers spuriously 2–celled, by means of a thick fleshy ridge which runs at the base of the anther, between the valves, and projects half-way across the cavity. After the dehiscence of these organs, they together form a cross placed horizontally on the top of the column, from their unsymmetrical contraction; of these, the lower one on each side projects horizontally and forms a right angle with the axis of the column, its two lower lobes approximating below; the upper becomes erect, and its upper margin being revolute, meets that of the opposite anther ”

“ It is difficult to find a more widely distributed phænogamic plant than this, especially in the southern hemisphere, where it generally accompanies the Callitriche verna. In New Zealand and in Peru it inhabits a more elevated region. ”

“ In Argyroxyphium the conical apices are very short and studded with long papillæ, whence they appear abrupt, and each of the arms is split into two parallel laminæ, between which a knife is easily inserted, when the midrib is seen remaining on the inner of the two lamellæ, and the stigmatic series on the outer. I do not think that in a natural system the two genera now under consideration should be far separated from one another, or from the following genus Celmisia, Cass. ”

“ In the narrow, sinuous bays, however, the scene is quite changed, for they are often margined by a slender belt of brushwood, with an abundant undergrowth of Ferns, stretching up the steep and confined gulleys. ”

“ In many respects this agrees with the S. uliginosa, Murr., and more particularly in the size and arrangement of the inflorescence, but the stems are always decumbent, the leaves all petiolate, very patent or recurved, and not at all broader or ovate at the base; their callous apices are common to both species. The peduncles generally bear two pedicels, which have a pair of bracts at the base, and a pair on one of the pedicels, whereas in S. uliginosa the peduncle is trichotomously divided, with the intermediate pedicel only destitute of bracts. ”

“ Petals narrow, variable in number, about twice as long as the sepals, bright yellow, 11⁄2 line long, spreading and horizontal in the expanded flower during the day, 3-nerved; nectary conspicuous, sunk, and covered with a closely appressed scale, forming together a deep fovea, opening upwards, placed on the middle of the petal and resembling the fructification of some Davallia. Filaments short, linear-subulate. Anthers broadly oblong. Ovaries about 15, some abortive, gibbous at the base, with a curved falcate style. ”

“ The scapes or peduncles, bearing the globose capitula, are quite glabrous. The whole plant varies much in the size and toothing of its leaflets, whence I am inclined to think it may be the large and ordinary form of A. Magellanica, Lam.; although Vahl describes the peduncles of that plant as "superne subvillosi." I further doubt how far the A. ovalifolia, Ruiz, and Pav. (Fl. Per. t. 103. f. c) , will prove distinct; it again is allied to the A. Sanguisorbæ, Vahl. The present form was not found either in Tasmania, New Zealand, or in Lord Auckland's or Campbell's Islands. ”

“ Filaments often very long, half an inch and upwards. The styles are also slender, and when highly magnified exhibit throughout their length minute papillæ. Ovary (or female flower) 2–4-celled, pedicellate. The flowers are generally solitary; the males in the axils of the upper, and the females in those of the lower leaves, with a small abortive leaf-bud in the opposite axil. ”