Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/636

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Annual or perennial herbs, usually succulent. Leaves alternate or opposite or whorled, fleshy or more rarely membranous, often pellucid-dotted; stipules wanting. Spikes slender, terminal or axillary or leaf-opposed, solitary or fascicled. Flowers hermaphrodite, minute, sessile or sunk in the rhachis of the spike, bracteate; the bract frequently peltate. Perianth wanting. Stamens 2; filaments very short; anther-cells confluent. Ovary sessile, obtuse or acute, 1-celled; stigma usually penicillate; ovule solitary, erect. Fruit minute, indehiscent; seed with a membranous testa.

1. P. reflexa, ''A. Dietr. Sp. Plant.'' i. 180.—Small, succulent, erect or spreading, much branched from the base, 4–9 in. high; branches deeply grooved when dry, pubescent at the nodes. Leaves in whorls of 3 or 4, rarely opposite, shortly petiolate or almost sessile, ¼–½ in. long, elliptic-rhomboidal or almost orbicular, obtuse, fleshy when fresh, coriaceous when dry, dark-green above, paler beneath, minutely punctate, young leaves beneath and petioles finely pubescent, veins obscure. Spikes slender, terminal, pedunculate, ¾–1½ in. long, dense-flowered; peduncle and rhachis pubescent. Bract orbicular-peltate, almost sessile. Ovary partly immersed in the rhachis, ovate, acute; stigma capitellate. Berry exserted, ovoid, reddish, $1⁄20$ in. long.—''Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vi. 206. P. novæ-zealandiæ, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 394. Piper æmulum, ''Endl. Prodr. Fl. Norfl.'' 36.

2. P. Endlicheri, ''Miq. Syst. Pip.'' 102.—A small glabrous succulent herb 6–12 in. high; stems sparingly branched, prostrate and rooting at the base, ascending or erect above. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, ½–1¼ in. long, broadly obovate or elliptic-oblong, sometimes almost orbicular, rounded at the tip or rarely subacute, 3-nerved at the base, glabrous, very thick and fleshy when fresh, thin and often almost pellucid when dry. Spikes terminal and axillary, solitary, peduncled, 1–2 in. long. Bract orbicular-peltate. Ovary partly immersed; stigma discoid. Berry exserted or im-