Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/619

Rhagodia.]

Annual or perennial erect or prostrate herbs, rarely woody at the base, mealy or glandular-pubescent, seldom glabrous. Leaves alternate, entire or lobed or toothed. Flowers minute, greenish, usually hermaphrodite, sessile in clusters; clusters axillary or in terminal spikes or panicles. Perianth 5-partite, rarely 3–4-partite; segments obtuse, incurved and concave, not at all or very slightly altered in fruit. Stamens 5 or fewer; filaments filiform or flattened, sometimes connate at the base. Ovary depressed or ovoid, styles 2–3, free or united at the base. Fruit an ovoid or depressed membranous utricle, wholly or partially included in the persistent perianth. Seed horizontal or vertical; testa crustaceous; embryo annular, enclosing the copious mealy albumen.

1. C. detestans, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 550.—A much-branched prostrate or decumbent herb, more or less clothed with a whitish granular meal, and with a strong and offensive