Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/199

Callitriche.] There seem to be two forms of this—one with a broad wing occupying a third of the whole width of the fruit, the other with a much narrower wing. The last-mentioned form was referred by Mr. Kirk to C. obtusangula, Hegelm, Monog. Callit. 54, t. 3, f. 3, but this determination is clearly erroneous, the true obtusangula having rounded angles to the fruit, which is not at all winged.



Trees or shrubs, sometimes climbing. Leaves opposite, more rarely alternate or whorled, simple and entire, usually dotted with pellucid oil-glands and with a vein running parallel to the margin. Stipules generally absent. Flowers regular, usually hermaphrodite, solitary and axillary, or in axillary or terminal cymes panicles or racemes. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary up to the insertion of the stamens, limb 4–5 or many-cleft or -partite, persistent or deciduous, imbricate or valvate, sometimes entire or closed in bud. Petals as many as the calyx-lobes, rarely wanting, inserted on a disc lining the calyx-tube. Stamens usually numerous, inserted on the disc with the petals; filaments free or connate at the base or united into separate bundles; anthers small, roundish. Ovary inferior or semi-inferior, crowned by a fleshy disc, sometimes 1-celled with 1 or few ovules, more often 2- to many-celled with numerous ovules; style simple; stigma capitate. Fruit either crowned by the persistent calyx-limb or marked by its scar when deciduous, usually a capsule loculicidally dehiscing into as many valves as cells, or a 1- to many-seeded berry, more rarely dry and indehiscent. Seeds angular or compressed or cylindrical; albumen usually wanting.

