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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
6. Phormium, Forst
6. Phormium, Forst.
Tall rigid and coriaceous herbs. Ehizome short, stout, branched, with thick and fleshy perpendicular rootlets. Leaves all radical, long, linear-ensiform, equitant and distichous, exceedingly tough and coriaceous. Flowering stem or scape tall, leafless, with alternate bracteate branches at the top; bracts caducous. Flowers pedicelled on the branches of a terminal panicle, dull-red or yellow; pedicels jointed. Perianth tubular, curved; segments 6, connate at the base, free but connivent above; the 3 outer lanceolate, erect, acute; the 3 inner rather longer, with spreading tips. Stamens 6, inserted at the base of the segments and longer than them; fila-ments filiform; anthers linear - oblong. Ovary sessile, oblong, obtusely trigonous, 3-celled; style slender, equalling or exceeding the stamens, declinate; stigma small, capitate; ovules numerous in each cell. Capsule subcoriaceous or almost membranous, oblong or linear, trigonous or almost terete, straight or twisted, loculicidally 3-valved. Seeds many, oblong, greatly compressed; testa black, shining.
Phormium, or the "New Zealand flax," is a very remarkable genus of 2 species, confined to New Zealand and Norfolk Island. Its value as producing one of the strongest and most durable fibres of the vegetable kingdom is too well known to require recapitulation here.
Leaves 3–9 ft;, dark-green, glaucous beneath; margins usually bordered with a coloured line. Flowers dull- red. Capsule short, erect or inclined, trigonous, 2–4 in. long 1. P. tenax.page 716 Leaves 2–5 ft., pale-green, less rigid; margins seldom coloured. Flowers yellowish. Capsule long, pendulous, cylindrical, terete, twisted, 4–7 in. long 2. P. Cookianum.
| 1. | P. tenax, Forst. Char. Gen. 48.—Leaves 3–9 ft. long or more, 2–5 in. broad, linear-ensiform, acute or acuminate, apex slit when mature, distichous and equitant at the base, flat above, keeled, very tough and coriaceous, dark-green above, often glaucous beneath, margins and midrib bordered with a red or orange line. Scape very variable in height, 5–15 ft., glabrous, terete, reddish- purple. Flowers numerous. 1–2 in. long, usually dull-red. Inner perianth-segments erect or slightly recurved at the tip. Capsule erect or inclined, stout, trigonous, 2–4 in. long, not twisted.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 153; A. Cunn. Precicr. n. 304; Raoul, Choix,. 41; Hook.f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 256; Handb. N.Z. Fl 286.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands, Auckland Islands: Abundant throughout, especially in lowland swamps and alluvial grounds. Sea-level to 4000 ft. New Zealand Flax; Harakeke; Korari (the scape); Muka (the fibre). November–January. A familiar plant to all residents in New Zealand, and, with the exception of certain well-known timber-trees, probably of more economic importance than any other indigenous species. For information as to its value as a fibre-plant,. and for full particulars as to the mode of preparing the fibre, its microscopical and chemical properties, &c, reference should be made to "Phormium tenax as a Fibrous Plant," edited by Sir James Hector, and issued by the Geological Survey Department (second edition, Wellington, 1889). This publication also contains a bibliography of the numerous official reports, memoirs, and short papers which have been published from time to time in reference to Phormium,. several of them containing much valuable information. P. tenax varies much in size, the colour of the leaf and the extent to which it is recurved and split at the tip, the tint of the coloured line bordering the margins and midrib, the colour of the flowers, and the size of the capsule. Some of the varieties also differ considerably in the strength of the fibre. Con-sidering the economic importance of the plant, it is singular that no systematic attempt has been made to collect the whole of the varieties and cultivate them side by side in one at least of the public gardens of the colony. Until this is done, it is practically impossible to describe them in a scientific manner. Isolated descriptions of a few, without comparison with the rest, would be of little use. Some varieties with the leaves variegated in a riband-like manner with white or creamy-yellow, and others with bronzy foliage, are largely cultivated for orna-mental purposes, but are not usually capable of being reproduced by seed. |
| 2. | P. Cookianum, Le Jolis in Bull. Soc. Hort. Cherb. 71.— Much smaller and less rigid than P. tenax. Leaves 2–5 ft. long, rarely more, 1–2½ in. broad, acuminate, apex sometimes con- spicuously split, but usually much less so than in P. tenax, pale- green, seldom glaucous, margins and midrib not usually bordered with a coloured line. Scape 2–7 ft. high, much more slender and with a smaller panicle, green. Flowers 1–1½in. long; the outer segments yellow or yellowish - red, the inner green or greenish- yellow, with evidently recurved tips. Capsule long, pendulous, cylindrical, terete, twisted, 4–7 in. long.—P. Colensoi, Hook. f. in page 717Raoul, Choix, 41; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 286. P. Forsterianurn, Col. in Hook. Bond. Journ. Bot. iii. (1844) 8. P. Hookeri, Cunn in Bot. Mag. t. 6973.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 4000 ft. Wharariki.November–January. The small size, pale colour, yellowish flowers, and long twisted capsules distinguish this from P. tenax; but it is in some respects an ill-defined species, including several forms respecting which additional information is required. One of these, figured in the "Botanical Magazine" under the name of P. Hookeri, is remarkable for its flaccid much recurved leaves with long fissured tips. Sir J. D. Hooker considers that it is more different from P. tenax and P. Cookia-num than they are from one another; but his plate shows the floral characters to be very similar to those of P. Cookianum. |