Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/245

Apium.] ovate or broader than long, slightly compressed laterally, constricted at the commissure. Carpels ovoid, with five prominent obtuse nearly equal ribs. Vittæ 1 under each furrow and 2 on the commissural side.

1. A. prostratum, Lab. Relat. i. 141.—Very variable in size and degree of stoutness. Root sometimes as thick as the thumb. Stems prostrate or decumbent, more rarely suberect, sometimes rooting at the base, 6-24 in. long or more, stout or slender, branched, grooved, quite glabrous. Leaves excessively variable, 2–9 in. long, pinnate or 2-pinnate, sometimes trifoliolace; leaflets sessile or petioled, 3-partite, the segments broad or narrow, coriaceous or membranous, incised or again deeply lobed. Umbels sessile or very shortly pendunculate; rays 3–15, ½–2 in. long, each bearing a secondary umbel of rather small white flowers on slender pedicels ¼ in. long. Involucral bracts wanting. Fruit broadly ovoid, $1⁄12$–$1⁄10$ carpels with prominent almost corky ribs vittæ not very conspicuous.—Fl. Nov. Holl. i. 76, t. 103; Kirk Students' Fl. 196. A. australe, ''Thouars Fl. Trist. d'Acugn. 43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 86; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 90; Benth. Fl Austral.'' iii. 372. Petroselinum prostratum, D.C. Prodr. iv. 102; ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 278; A. Cunn. Precur.'' n. 503.

Perennial herbs, tufted or more rarely diffusely branched, glabrous pubescent or villous. Leaves pinnately divided or decompound. Umbels simple, solitary on a scape or peduncle;