Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/632

592 ovate, in the female flowers reduced to short and thick staminodia or altogether wanting. Ovary 3-gonous, in the male flowers small and rudimentary; styles 3, short; stigmas usually fimbriate. Nut obtusely or acutely 3-gonous, enclosed in the usually more or less succulent perianth.

1. M. australis, Meissn. Gen. Comm. 227.—A much-branched climber, covering shrubs or small trees, or trailing over cliffs or rocks; trunk stout, woody, sometimes 3 in. diam.; bark greyish; branches numerous, flexuous and interlaced, the younger ones grooved and angled, glabrous or faintly scaberulous. Leaves petiolate, 1–3 in. long, ovate or orbicular-oblong, apiculate or acuminate, rarely obtuse, cordate or truncate at the base, thin and membranous, quite glabrous, usually entire, but sometimes panduriform or 3-lobed, margins undulate-crisped; petioles ⅓–1 in. long; stipules deciduous. Panicles large, axillary and terminal, much branched, 1½–3 in. long or more. Flowers about ⅙ in. diam., greenish, diœcious; males with 8 stamens and the rudiment of an ovary; females with 8 blunt staminodia and a short triquetrous ovary; stigmas broad, fimbriate. Fruiting-perianth closed over the fruit, slightly succulent or almost herbaceous. Nut black, shining, 3-angled and 3-grooved, angles often twisted.—M. adpressa, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 236 (not of Meissn)''. Polygonum australe, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 178; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 355; Raoul, Choix,'' 42. P. adpressum, ''A. Cunn. l.c. n. 356 (not of Labill.)''. Coccoloba australis, ''Forst. Prodr.'' n. 176.

2. M. complexa, Meissn. Gen. Comm. 227.—Forming dense thick and elastic prostrate masses many feet in diam., or climbing over bushes or rocks. Stems slender, tough and woody, much interlaced; branches very numerous, flexuous, terete, the ultimate ones pubescent with short stiff hairs; bark dark red-brown.