Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/188

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Erect or procumbent branching wiry herbs, sometimes almost woody at the base. Leaves opposite or alternate, entire or toothed or lobed. Flowers unisexual or hermaphrodite, minute, axillary, solitary or clustered, often spicate or racemose. Calyx-tube 4–8-angled or winged; lobes 4, erect, persistent. Petals 4, cucullate, acute, coriaceous, often wanting in the female flowers. Stamens 4–8, filaments usually short. Ovary 2–4-celled; ovules solitary in each cell, pendulous; styles short, stigmas usually plumose in the female flowers. Fruit a small dry 2–4-celled 2–4-seeded nut, sometimes 1-celled and 1-seeded by abortion; the adnate calyx-tube either smooth, ribbed, or muricate.

1. H. alata, Jacq. Misc. ii. 332.—A coarse erect or suberect branching herb 1–3 ft. high; stems sharply 4-angled, minutely scabrid. Leaves opposite, petiolate, very variable in size, ½–3in. long, ovate-lanceolate to oblong, coarsely and sharply serrate, acute or acuminate. Flowers minute, solitary or clustered, in leafy racemes terminating the branches; pedicels short, curved, drooping. Calyx-tube 4-angled; lobes small, broad. Petals twice as long as the calyx-lobes. Stamens 8. Fruit rather small, $1⁄10$ in. long, ovoid, with 4 ribs more or less dilated into wings; interspaces smooth or rugose.—''Forst. Prodr. n. 180; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 62; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 65; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' ii. 479; Kirk, Students' Fl. 148. Cercodia erecta, ''Murr. in Comm. Gotting.'' iii. (1780) 3, t. 1. C. alternifolia, ''A. Cunn. Precur.'' n. 527.