Plate 19 Anisotome latifolia

This member of the carrot family (Umbelliferae) is restricted to Auckland and Campbell Islands, where it was once common in moist places from sea level to mountain tops. It is now almost restricted to places inaccessible to stock. Joseph Hooker commented, "This is certainly 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 a human head. The foliage is of a deep shining green, and the whole plant emits, when bruised, an aromatic smell." There are some twelve other species of Anisotome in New Zealand.

The illustration shows "A small flowering portion of the plant, with the limb of the leaf". Figure 1, unexpanded male flower; figure 2, the same expanded; figure 3, sepals and the central, sterile ovary region of a male flower. Part of a leaf is shown, uncoloured, in the background.

page break

Plate 20 Drosera stenopetala (sundew)

This species, like all I have chosen to illustrate from The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage, was irst described by Joseph Hooker. This illustration is from Flora Novae-Zelandiae. The sundews are insectivorous plants — often growing in nitrogen deficient soils — which supplement their diet by obtaining nitrogenous compounds from insects. These are trapped on the leaves, which have sticky surfaces and long sticky hairs. Drosera stenopetala is a widely distributed species that occurs in the North Island south of latitude 40°, South Island, Stewart Island, Auckland and Campbell Islands. In the northern part of its range it is found in montane to subalpine bogs, but in the south it descends to sea level. There are six New Zealand species of Drosera (family Droseraceae), a cosmopolitan genus with about 100 species world wide. The specimen Joseph Hooker based his description on was collected by David Lyall from Preservation Inlet, at the south of the South Island.

Figure 1, flower; figure 2, petal (considerably enlarged); figure 3, stamen; figure 4, central ovary and surrounding stamens.

page break