Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/648

608 is specially the case with P. virgata, P. lævigata, P. Urvilleana, and P. Lyallii, the numerous forms of which require a careful study in the field before their proper position can be determined.

The flowers of Pimelea are usually described as hermaphrodite. But all the New Zealand species are functionally diœcious, or occasionally polygamo-diœcious. The male flowers are the most numerous and the most conspicuous. The stamens have long slender filaments, so that the anthers either reach the top of the perianth-lobes or are slightly exserted; and the style with its comparatively small stigma is always included within the perianth. I have never seen fruit in this form, and believe that the pistil is quite functionless. The female flowers are smaller, often swollen at the base, although narrower above. The anthers are small, almost sessile, and are usually devoid of pollen. The ovary is large, with a short style and large capitate stigma, which is conspicuously exserted when the flower is mature. Pollen is sometimes present in this form, but in the majority of cases the flowers are strictly female.