Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/437

Colensoa. tips. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovules numerous, attached to broad peltate placentas; style long; stigma 2-lobed, lobes large, oblong, spreading. Berry globose, thinly fleshy, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, subglobose, tuberculate.

1. C. physaloides, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 157.—Stem flexuose, smooth, sparingly branched, 1–4 ft. high. Leaves on slender petioles 2–5 in. long; blade 3–7 in. long, ovate, acute, unequally doubly serrate, thin and membranous, conspicuously veined, glabrous or with a few sparse soft hairs. Racemes terminal, 5–15-flowered, shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender, bracteolate at the base. Corolla 1½–2 in. long, pale-blue, pubescent. Berry ½ in. diam., bluish, coriaceous.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 170; Bot. Mag.'' t. 6864. Lobelia physaloides, ''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 425; Raoul, Choix, 45; Hook. Ic. Plant.'' t. 555, 556.

Slender prostrate or creeping herbs, rarely ascending or erect, Leaves alternate, toothed. Peduncles axillary, 1-flowered. Flowers rather small, often unisexual. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, limb 5-partite. Corolla oblique, spllt to the base at the back, 2-lipped; upper lip 2-partite, lower lip 3-lobed, spreading. Staminal tube free from the corolla or nearly so; anthers cohering, 2 lower tipped with short bristles, 3 upper naked. Ovary 2-celled; ovules numerous; stigma 2-lobed or emarginate. Berry globose or obovoid, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, minute.

1. P. angulata, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 43.—A very variable slender creeping or prostrate much-branched perennial herb, glabrous or rarely slightly pubescent; stems 2–12 in. long, branches often ascending at the tips. Leaves shortly petiolate, ⅙–½ in. long