Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/469

Samolus. opposite to them, sometimes alternating with staminodia, inserted in the tube or at the base of the corolla; anthers 2-celled, introrse. Ovary superior (inferior in Samolus), 1-celled; style short or long, stigma usually capitate; ovules 2 or more, attached to a free central placenta. Fruit a 1-celled capsule, 2–6-valved or dehiscing transversely. Seeds 2 to many, minute, angular; albumen fleshy or horny; embryo small, transverse.

Annual or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate. Flowers white, in terminal racemes or corymbs. Calyx half-superior, 5-fid, persistent. Corolla perigynous, subcampanulate; tube short; limb 5-lobed or -partite. Stamens 5, affixed to the corolla-tube, alternating with as many staminodes; filaments very short. Ovary globose, adnate to the calyx-tube, the tip free; style short; ovules numerous, anatropous. Capsule globose or ovoid, half-inferior, the free part 5-valved, many-seeded. Seeds minute, orbicular or angled; embryo transverse; hilum basilar.

1. S. repens, Pers. Syn. i. 171.—A glabrous perennial herb; stems 4–12 in. long, erect, ascending, or prostrate from a tufted rootstock, often emitting creeping and rooting stolons from the base. Leaves fleshy, very variable in size and shape, ⅙–1 in. long, obovate or iinear-obovate to linear-spathulate or linear, the lower ones usually broader and petiolate, the upper smaller and narrower and often sessile. Flowers about ¼ in. diam., axillary or in few-flowered terminal racemes; pedicels longer than the leaves. Calyx-tube adnate to about the middle of the ovary, lobes acute. Corolla broad, the tube usually about as long as the calyx-lobes. Capsule broadly ovoid, ⅙–⅕ in. diam.—''F. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is. 34; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' iv. 271. S. littoralis, ''R. Br. Prodr. 428; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 185; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 372; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 207; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 185. Sheffieldia repens, ''Forst. Char. Gen. 18; Prodr.'' n. 67.