Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/190

150 4. H. spicata, ''Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xix. (1887) 325.—A slender erect or ascending sparingly branched herb 4–10 in. high, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves few, opposite, shortly petioled, ⅓–⅔ in. long, ovate or elliptic-ovate, acute or subacute, coriaceous, serrate, pubescent. Flowers in slender terminal branched panicles, sessile in the axils of minute opposite or alternate bracts; terminal 1–3 flowers female; lower flowers apparently all male, but many of the bracts empty in my specimens. Calyx-lobes 4, triangular. Anthers 4; filaments short. Stigmas plumose. Fruit yLin. long, 4-angled; interspaces smooth or slightly wrinkled.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 149.

5. H. micrantha, R. Br. ex Sieb. and Zucc. Fl. Jap. i. 25.—A tufted much-branched procumbent or ascending herb 2–6 in. high; stems and branches slender, wiry, glabrous or slightly scaberulous. Leaves opposite, very shortly petioled, $1⁄5$–$1⁄3$ in. diam., broadly ovate or almost orbicular, obtuse or subacute, coriaceous, crenate-serrate, the crenatures broad and rounded. Flowers minute, drooping, in slender almost filiform racemes terminating the branchlets; pedicels very short. Petals 4, more than twice as long as the triangular calyx-lobes. Fruit $1⁄20$ in. long, broadly oblong, 8-costate, interspaces smooth and shining.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 66; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' ii. 482; Kirk, Students Fl. 149. H. tenella, ''Brong. in Duper. Voy. Coq. Bot. t. 68, f. 6; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 63. H. minima. ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xviii. (1886) 259. Gonicarpus citriodorus, ''A. Cunn. Precur.'' n. 530.

Glabrous marsh or aquatic herbs, branches often floating. Leaves opposite, alternate, or whorled, the lower leaves when submerged often pinnately divided with capillary segments. Flowers usually monœcious, axillary, solitary or spiked. Males: Calyx-tube very short; limb 4- or rarely 2-lobed or wanting. Petals 2–4, concave. Stamens 2, 4, or 8. Females: Calyx-tube deeply 4-grooved; limb wanting, or of 4 minute subulate lobes. Petals minute or wanting. Ovary inferior, 4- or rarely 2-celled; styles 4 or 2, usually recurved or plumose; ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit deeply 4-furrowed, usually separating into 4 dry indehiscent 1-seeded nuts.