Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/105

Stellaria.] stout terminal peduncles. Sepals very large, almost foliaceous, lanceolate, acuminate, with 3 stout nerves. Petals much shorter than the sepals, cleft almost to the base. Stamens 10. Styles 3. Capsule about half as long as the sepals, 6-valved to the base. Seeds 12–20, red-brown, covered with large projecting papillae.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 58.

6. S. gracilenta, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 326.—A loosely tufted rigid and wiry yellow-green herb 1–5 in. high; stems suberect, slightly scabrid, often matted and interlaced. Leaves opposite, glabrous, $1⁄6$–$1⁄4$ in. long, linear-subulate, curved, concave above, smooth and convex below when moist, when dry grooved on each side of the stout midrib; tip rigid, terete, acute; margins thickened, slightly ciliate at the base, not revolute; each stem-leaf with a small fascicle of leaves in its axil. Peduncles springing from the axils of the uppermost leaves, 1–3 in. long, solitary, strict, erect, 1-flowered, 2-bracteolate about the middle. Flowers ⅓ in. diam., greenish-white. Sepals oblong, acute, with broad membranous margins. Petals 5, rather longer than the sepals, 2-cleft almost to the base. Stamens 5–10. Styles 3. Capsule ovate-oblong, 6-valved; seeds pale-brown, papillose.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 24; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 58.

Small densely tufted usually rigid glabrous herbs. Leaves opposite, narrow-linear or subulate, usually imbricate, rigid, cartilaginous, rarely fleshy. Flowers green, solitary, on short or long peduncles. Sepals 4–5, coriaceous, erect. Petals wanting. Stamens 4–5, alternating with the sepals, slightly perigynous. Capsule ovoid or oblong, opening by as many valves as sepals.

A small genus of about 15 species, most numerous in New Zealand, but found also on the mountains of South America, in Australia and Tasmania, and in the Antarctic islands. Of the 9 species found in New Zealand, all but 3 are endemic. The species are highly variable, and most of them extremely difficult of discrimination.