Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/631

Rumex.] radical, variable in size, 3–12 in. long, linear or linear-oblong, acute or obtuse, cuneate or truncate or cordate at the base, rarely expanded or subhastate; margins flat or waved. Panicle at first open, but in an advanced fruiting stage the branches are often numerous, spreading and intricate; whorls remote, 4–12-flowered, the lower ones leafy; peduncles jointed near the base, curved, deflexed. Inner segments of the fruiting-perianth about $1⁄10$ in. long, rhomboid, narrowed into a long acuminate tip, reticulated, without tubercles; margins entire or more usually furnished with 1–4 hooked spines on each side.—''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 211; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 237. A. Cunninghamii, ''Meissn. in D.C. Prodr.'' xiv. 62. R. Brownianus, ''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 360 (not of Gamp.); Raoul, Choix,'' 42.

2. R. neglectus, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. (1877) 493.—A glabrous perennial herb 2–6 in. high; rootstock long, stout, often branched above. Leaves rosulate, 1–3 in. long, linear-oblong, obtuse, truncate or cuneate at the base, margins crenate-undulate; petiole almost as long as the blade. Flowering-stem short, stout, depressed, simple or with 1–2 branches from the base; dense-flowered or rarely elongated with the whorls interrupted; peduncles usually deflexed. Flowers hermaphrodite. Fruiting-perianth subcampanulate, about ⅛ in. long, thickened at the base; outer segments oblong, obtuse, equalling the tube; inner rather longer, lanceolate, acute, with a tubercle on the midrib and 1 or 2 short teeth on each side.—''Oliver in Hook. Ic. Plant.'' t. 1245. R. cuneifolius var. alismæfolius. ''Hook. f. Fl. Antarct.'' i. 67.

Large or small shrubs or undershrubs, often climbing, sometimes prostrate or diffusely spreading. Leaves alternate, petiolate, large or small, sometimes wanting; stipules short, loosely sheathing. Flowers polygamous or diœecious, small, whitish, fascicled within small sheathing bracts; fascicles axillary or arranged in axillary or terminal spikes, racemes, or panicles. Perianth deeply 5-partite; segments equal or the outer ones rather larger, often becoming white and succulent in fruit. Stamens 8, rarely fewer, affixed to the base of the perianth; filaments filiform; anthers