Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/620

580 odour of stale fish; branches numerous from the root, slender, spreading, 6–18 in. long. Leaves on slender petioles; blade ⅙–½ in. long, rarely more, triangular-hastate or rhomboid-ovate, acute, cuneate at the base, entire or with a single tooth on each side. Flowers small, abundantly produced, in dense oblong or globose axillary fascicles, often becoming leafy spikes at the tips of the branches. Perianth-segments 4 or 5, oblong, obtuse, membranous, not completely concealing the fruit. Stamens usually 4. Utricle small, horizontal, depressed, brownish-black, minutely punctulate.

2. C. triandrum, Forst. Prodr. n. 129.—A much-branched prostrate or trailing herb, pale-green, glabrous or more or less mealytomentose; stems slender, 6–18 in. long, sometimes almost woody at the base. Leaves opposite or alternate, petiolate, ¼–1 in. long, very variable in shape, broadly oblong or orbicular to broadly triangular-hastate, obtuse or rounded at the tip, cuneate or rounded or truncate at the base, thin and membranous, green and glabrous or slightly mealy; petioles slender. Flowers very minute, farinose, in axillary or terminal lax-flowered spikes or panicles. Perianth-segments 4, oblong, obtuse. Stamens 2–4. Styles 2–3. Utricle depressed, more or less covered by the persistent perianth. Seed horizontal, minutely punctate, adherent to the utricle.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 180; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 361; Raoul, Choix, 43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 212; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 230.

3. C. glaucum, ''Linn. Sp. Plant.'' 220.—A much-branched prostrate fleshy and succulent annual herb; branches widely spreading, flaccid, glabrous, striate, 4–18 in. long, rarely ascending at the tips. Leaves petiolate, the lower ones ½–1½ in. long, oblong-lanceolate to ovate-oblong or rhomboid, usually obtuse at the tip, cuneate at the base, coarsely and angularly sinuate-toothed or -lobed, fleshy when fresh, thin when dry, green and glabrous above, white with mealy down beneath; upper ones smaller and narrower and more entire. Flowers small, in little clusters arranged in simple or compound axillary or terminal spikes, which are usually more or less farinose. Fruiting-perianth 3–5-partite; segments short, obtuse, appressed to the fruit but not altogether concealing it. Seed horizontal or occasionally vertical, smooth, margins obtuse.