Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/195

Gunnera.] the tall slender lax-flowered usually branched flowering-stems, the upper part of which is male and the lower female; the small broad anthers, on rather long filaments; and the small almost globose drupe. It is probably a widely distributed plant.

3. G. flavida, ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xviii. (1886) 260.—Rhizome creeping, slender. Leaves 1½–3 in. long; petiole slender, glabrous or sparingly clothed with shore white hairs; blade ½–1 in. long, ovate or elliptic-ovate or elliptic-oblong, obtuse, cordate or rounded or truncate at the base, finely crenate or sinuate-crenate or almost entire, rather membranous, glabrous or slightly hairy. Spikes unisexual. Males 1–3 in. long, rather slender; flowers lax or close together, on very short unbranched pedicels; each pedicel with a linear bract near the base, and 2 linear-cucullate deciduous bracteoles just under the flower. Sepals 2, small, narrowlinear. Stamens 2; filaments very short, almost wanting; anthers broadly ovate, apiculate. Female peduncles ½–1 in. long in the flowermg stage; flowers crowded. Calyx-teeth 2, short. Styles 2, long. Fruiting peduncles 1–4 in. long, overtopping the leaves. Drupes $1⁄8$ in., spreading, obconic, sessile or shortly pedicelled, red or pale-yellow.—Kirk, Students Fl. 153. G. ovata, ''Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxv. (1893) 274 (in part'').

4. G. prorepens, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 66.—A large and stout species, sometimes 12 in. high, although ordinarily less; rhizomes stout, creeping. Leaves 3–8 in. long; petioles 2–6 in., slender, glabrous or sparingly pilose; blade 1–2 in., ovate or oblong, obtuse, rounded or cordate at the base, crenulate, glabrous or slightly hairy. Flowers not seen. Fruiting peduncles usually longer than the leaves, simple, bearing many sessile lax or densely spiked drupes, which are $1⁄6$ in. long, red, fleshy, obconic or nearly globose, with an irregular deep furrow at the top from whence the styles protrude.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 68 (excl. var.'' b).