Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/676

636 stinging hairs few, weak. Spikes or racemes single or geminate in the axils of the upper leaves, often branched, longer or shorter than the petioles, the lower male and the upper female, or inflorescence altogether dioecious. Male perianth $1⁄15$ in. diam., glabrous or nearly so; female perianth much smaller when in flower but enlarging as the fruit ripens. Nut ovoid, compressed, rather longer than the persistent slightly enlarged perianth.—''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 251; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' vi. 190. U. lucifuga, ''Hook. f. in. Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot.'' vi. (1847) 285; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 225.

Herbs, sometimes woody at the base. Leaves distichous, alternate, or if opposite one of each pair much smaller than the other, sessile or nearly so, oblique and unequal-sided; stipules lateral or intrapetiolar. Flowers very minute, densely crowded in axillary sessile or peduncled unisexual usually involucrate receptacles; involucral bracts broadly oblong or ovate, nearly free or confluent below. Male flowers: Perianth 4–5-partite; segments membranous or hyaline, often spurred or tubercled on the back. Stamens 4–5, inflexed in bud. Eudimentary ovary minute. Female flowers: Perianth of 3–5 very minute segments or altogether wanting. Stamens imperfect. Ovary straight; stigma sessile, penicillate; ovule erect. Achene minute, compressed, ovoid or ellipsoid, smooth or rarely ribbed. Seed erect; albumen usually wanting; cotyledons ovate.

1. E. rugosum, Author:Allan Cunningham (1791-1839)A. Cunn. Precur. n. 335.—Stems stout, succulent, decumbent or prostrate and rooting at the base, erect above, sparingly branched, 1–5 ft. high. Leaves alternate, 4–10 in. long, obovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, curved, unequal-sided, auricled and semi-amplexicaul at the sessile base, sharply serrate, membranous, rugose, pubescent with minute rigid hairs on both surfaces; stipules lanceolate, membranous, deciduous. Receptacles monœcious, solitary in the axils of the leaves, sessile or shortly pedunculate, depressed-hemispherical, often lobed, ¼–½ in.