Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/71

Nasturtium.] the replum, from which the 2 valves fall away at maturity; more rarely the pod is indehiscent or transversely jointed. Seeds without albumen, entirely filled by the large embryo, which is variously bent or folded, the radicle either lying along the edges of the cotyledons (accumbent) or placed along the back of one of them (incumbent).

Glabrous or pubescent branched herbs. Leaves generally pinnate or pmnately lobed, sometimes entire. Mowers small, yellow or white. Sepals short, equal, spreading. Petals short, scarcely clawed. Stamens 2, 4, or 6. Stigma entire or 2-lobed. Pod almost terete, long or short; valves generally 1-nerved; septum thin, transparent. Seeds small, turgid, usually arranged in two rows; cotyledons accumbent.

A genus of between 20 and 30 species, some of them very widely dispersed, but most abundant in the temperate and warm regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

1. N. palustre, D.C. Syst. ii. 191.—A slender leafy branched herb with weak or decumbent stems 6–20 in. long, glabrous or slightly hairy. Leaves variable, usually lyrately pinnatifid, auricled at the base with the lobes toothed or irregularly lobed, sometimes