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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
12. Acianthus, R. Br
12. Acianthus, R. Br.
Small tender terrestrial herbs. Boot of rounded tubers at the end of long fleshy fibres. Leaf solitary, sessile, cordate. Flowers few or many in a raceme, rarely solitary; bracts usually small. Upper sepal erect or curved over the column, concave, rather-narrow, acute or acuminate; lateral sepals narrower, often almost filiform, erect or spreading. Petals shorter than the sepals, subu-late-lanceolate. Lip equalling the petals, sessile or nearly so, undivided, base with 2 adnate caili, disc smooth or papillose. Column elongated, erect or incurved, semiterete or winged; stigma cup-shaped, placed under the rostellum. Anther terminal, erect,. 2-celled; pollinia 2 or 4 in each cell, granular.
A genus comprising 7 species: i in Australia, 2 in New Caledonia, and 1 in. New Zealand.
| 1. | A. Sinclairii, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 245.—Stems slender, sometimes almost filiform, 1–6 in. high. Leaf near the base or almost half-way up the stem, sessile, ½–1½in. long, broadly ovate-cordate, acute or acuminate, deeply bilobed at the base, mem-branous, often purple beneath, veins reticulated. Flowers 2–12,. shortly pedicelled, Jin. diam., green; bracts ovate, acute, the lowest sometimes foliaceous. Upper sepal ovate-oblong, aristate,. 3-nerved; lateral sepals and petals subulate-lanceolate, acuminate. Lip horizontal or deflexed, ovate-lanceolate, concave, base with 2 large calli, tip thickened and studded with minute fleshy papillae. Column arched over the lip, much thickened and expanded towards the tip. Pollinia 2 in each anther-cell, deeply bilobed.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 264.
Kermadec Islands, North Island: Abundant in lowland districts throughout. South Island: Marlborough—Pelorus Sound, J. Macmahon! Nelson— Dun Mountain, Kirk! near Westport, W. Townson! Chatham Islands: Abundant, F. A. D. Cox! Miss Seddon! Sea-level to 2500 ft. May–August. For an account of the fertilisation, see a paper by myself in Trans. N.Z. Inst. vii. 349. |