Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/615

Pisonia.] 



Annual or perennial often tufted herbs. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple; stipules scarious (wanting in Scleranthus). Flowers usually hermaphrodite, regular, inconspicuous. Perianth (calyx) inferior, herbaceous or coriaceous, persistent and often hardened in fruit; lobes 4–5, imbricate. Petals usually wanting. Stamens hypogynous or perigynous, as many as the perianth-lobes and opposite to them or fewer by abortion, sometimes a single one only; filaments short, subulate; anthers small, didymous. Ovary superior, ovoid, 1-celled; style terminal, 2–3-fid; ovule solitary, erect or pendulous from a basal funicle. Fruit a utricle enclosed in the persistent perianth. Seed with farinaceous albumen; embryo usually annular.

Small rigid usually densely tufted annual or perennial herbs. Leaves opposite, connate at the base, subulate, often serrulate; stipules wanting. Flowers small, green, axillary, solitary or 2 together, or in little cymes or fascicles. Perianth funnel-shaped or urceolate or turbinate, 4–5-toothed or -lobed. Stamens 1, 2, 5, or 10, inserted on the throat of the perianth; filaments subulate; anthers didymous. Ovary ovoid; styles 2, distinct; stigmas eapitellate. Fruit a membranous utricle enclosed in the persistent and hardened perianth. Seed lenticular; testa smooth; embryo annular.

1. S. biflorus, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 74.—A small densely branched glabrous or minutely pubescent perennial herb, usually forming compact cushions 1–4 in. diam. or more, rarely laxly branched with the stems creeping and elongating to 6 in. Leaves crowded and imbricating, rarely remote, $1⁄10$–$1⁄12$ in. long, 