Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/193

Gunnera.] or wanting. Ovary 1-celled; styles 2, rarely 4, linear, papillose, stigmatic from the base; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit a small fleshy or coriaceous drupe; seed adherent to the pericarp; embryo very minute.

1. G. monoica, ''Raoul in Ann. Sci. Nat.'' Ser. iii. 2 (1844) 117.—A slender herb with numerous creeping rhizomes and tufts of radical leaves, often forming broad matted patches, glabrous or sparsely covered with short white hairs, especially on the petioles and nerves of the leaves. Leaves ⅓–1 in. diam., orbicular or reniform, cordate or truncate at the base, obscurely 3–5-lobed and crenate, or crenate alone; petioles 1–3 in. long. Panicle very slender, 1–5 in. long, usually longer than the leaves. Male flowers occupying the upper three-quarters of the panicle, sessile or shortly pedicelled; each flower consisting of 2 stamens arising from between 2 minute