Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/126

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Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees. Leaves alternate, simple, usually entire; stipules present or wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 5, rarely 4, free or coherent at the base, imbricate. Petals the same number, hypogynous or slightly perigynous, imbricate, often contorted. Stamens as many as the petals or twice as many, rarely more; filaments united below into a ring which frequently has 5 small glands at the base; anthers 2-celled, versatile. Ovary free, entire, 3–5-celled; styles the same number, distinct or more or less united; ovules 1–2 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit either a capsule splitting into 3–5 cocci, or more rarely a drupe. Seeds 1–2 in each cell; albumen fleshy or wanting; embryo usually straight, radicle superior.

Herbs, rarely shrubby at the base. Leaves usually alternate, narrow, quite entire; stipules generally wanting. Flowers in panicled or racemose or fascicled cymes. Sepals 5, entire. Petals 5, contorted in æstivation, fugacious. Stamens 5, alternate with the petals, hypogynous, usually connate at the base, often alternating with 5 minute staminodia. Disc of 5 glands opposite to the petals and adnate to the staminal ring. Ovary 5-celled, with 2 ovules in each cell; cells sometimes divided into 2; styles 5. Capsule 5-celled, septicidally splitting into 5 2-seeded or 10 1-seeded cocci. Seeds compressed, albumen scanty.

1. L. monogynum, Forst. Prodr. n. 145.—A very variable perfectly glabrous perennial herb, sometimes woody at the base;