Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/70

30 2. D. colorata, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, t. 23.—Very similar to the preceding, and merged with it by Hooker in the Handbook. It is usually smaller and more compactly branched; and the leaves are shorter, ½–2½ in. long, more coriaceous, yellowish-green blotched with red, usually more glaucous below. Fascicles 2–4-flowered; peduncles much shorter. Calyx shallowly cup-shaped, often quite entire. Carpels 2–4, but it is seldom that more than 2 ripen. Seeds 2–3.—D. axillaris, var. colorata, Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 2; Students' Fl. 22.

3. D. Traversii, ''T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xxx. (1898) 379.—A compact closely-branched shrub, 3–6 ft. high. Branches stout; bark reddish or reddish-yellow, rough and wrinkled, almost verrucose, sometimes viscid. Leaves numerous, close-set and often overlapping, ¾–1 in. long, oblong-obovate or obovate-spathulate, obtuse, thick and coriaceous, glaucous below, margins slightly thickened; petiole short, stout, appressed. Flowers small, axillary, 1 or 2 together; pedicels short. Calyx saucer-sliaped, entire. Petals 5, linear-oblong, obtuse. Stamens usually 5. Carpel solitary (always?), obovate. Berry small, globose-depressed; seeds 3–6.—Hymenanthera Traversii, ''Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xv. (1883) 339, t. 28.





Herbs, very rarely undershrubs, with pungent watery juice. Leaves alternate, entire lobed or pinnately divided, the lower ones often forming a rosette at the base of the stem; stipules wanting. Flowers perfect, in terminal racemes, which are often short and corymb-like when the flowering commences, but lengthen out as it advances, usually without bracts. Sepals 4, free, deciduous. Petals 4, free, hypogynous, placed cross-wise. Stamens 6, 2 of them shorter than the other 4; sometimes reduced to 4 or even 2 (Lepidium). Ovary usually 2-celled; style short or wanting; stigma entire or 2-lobed. Ovules few or numerous. Fruit a pod, long or short, usually divided into 2 cells by a thin partition called