Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/485

Sebæa.]

Erect glabrous annual herbs. Leaves small, opposite, sessile. Flowers small, yellow, in terminal dichotomous cymes. Calyx 4–5-partite; segments often keeled or winged. Corolla-tube cylindric; lobes 4–5, spreading, contorted in the bud. Stamens 4–5, affixed to the throat or tube of the corolla; filaments short; anthers oblong, introrse, straight or recurved at the tips. Ovary completely 2-celled, placentas large, adnate to the septum; style filiform; stigma clavate or capitate. Capsule globose or ovoid, septicidally 2-valved. Seeds numerous, minute; testa reticulated.

1. S. ovata, R. Br. Prodr. 452.—A simple or sparingly branched annual herb 4–8 in. high; stems 4-angled. Leaves few, in distant pairs, sessile, ¼–½ in. long, broadly ovate or orbicular-ovate, obtuse or subacute. Flowers small, ¼ in. long, pale-yellow, in a terminal dichotomous cyme, with a flower in each axil. Calyx-segments 5, ovate-lanceolate, acute, keeled. Corolla with a long straight tube and 5 short lobes which are twisted after flowering. Anthers linear-oblong, with a gland at the tip. Style short. Capsule oblong.—''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 179; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 191; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 371. S. gracilis, ''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 400; Raoul, Choix,'' 44.