Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/530

490 calyx, shortly 5-lobed. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla-tube. Style short; stigma capitate. Capsule included within the persistent calyx, $1⁄10$–$1⁄8$ in. diam., globose, rupturing irregularly. Seeds very numerous; testa reticulated.

Herbs or shrubs, rarely small trees. Leaves opposite or rarely the cauline alternate, often connate at the base, large or small and scale-like, spreading or appressed, often closely quadrifariously imbricate. Flowers in bracteate axillary or terminal racemes, more rarely in spikes or panicles or corymbs, sometimes solitary in the axils of the leaves or terminal. Calyx usually 4-partite, rarely 3- or 5-partite. Corolla-tube longer or shorter than the calyx, sometimes very short; limb spreading, usually 4-lobed, sometimes 5-lobed, seldom 3- or 6-lobed; lobes unequal or rarely equal, imbricate in the bud, the lateral ones or one of them outside. Stamens 2, very rarely 4 or 5; filaments long or short, inserted on the corollatube; anther-cells diverging or parallel, confluent at the tip. Ovary small, 2-celled; style slender; ovules few or many in each cell. Capsule 2-celled, compressed or turgid, grooved on each side, either septicidally dehiscent with the placentas separating, or loculicidal with the valves remaining attached to the undivided placental column or separating from it. Seeds few or many, ovate or orbicular, compressed, attached by the inner flat surface.

A genus of nearly 200 species, most abundant in New Zealand and in the temperate regions of the Northern Hemisphere, rare and almost absent in the tropics. In New Zealand it is by far the largest genus of flowering-plants, and in montane or subalpine districts forms a conspicuous portion of the vegetation. Many of the species are singularly beautiful in form, foliage, and flower; and from that reason, and from the ease with which they can be cultivated, a considerable number have become well established in gardens throughout the colony and in Europe. Of the 84 species admitted in this book, all but three are endemic. These are V. elliptica, which is found in the Falkland Islands, Fuegia, and South Chili; V. plebeia, which is not uncommon in east Australia; and V. Anagallis, which has a wide distribution in the north temperate zone. But the last is probably an introduction. The distribution of the species within the colony is peculiar. Fourteen are confined to the North Island, and no less than 55 to the South Island, while only 11 species are found in both Islands. Three are endemic in the Chatham Islands, and one in the Auckland and Campbell Islands. Of the 84 species, 49 are purely montane or alpine, not one of them descending below 1000 ft. altitude; 13 are both lowland and montane; 12 are purely lowland, but do not evince any special predilection for the seacoast; while 10 are never seen far from the sea.