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Glabrous almost suffruticose herbs. Stems slender, branched, wiry, knotted at the joints, lower joints with small membranous scales. Leaves alternate, sessile or nearly so, distichous, lanceolate to oblong, prominently nerved. Flowers white, solitary or 2–4 in the axils of the leaves. Perianth deciduous; segments 6, distinct, subequal, spreading, thin, nerveless. Stamens 6, hypogynous; filaments erect; anthers linear-oblong, basifixed, longitudinally dehiscent. Ovary sessile, ovoid, 3-celled; ovules 4–10 in each cell; style filiform; stigma terminal, capitate or obsoletely 3-lobed. Berry subglobose, indehiscent. Seeds few, ovoid or subglobose; testa thin, appressed; embryo short, straight; albumen horny.

1. E. marginata, ''Banks and Sol. ex Gaertn. Fruct.'' i. 283, t. 59.—Stems slender, branched, wiry, flexuous, creeping at the base, 4–12 in. long or more. Leaves alternate, sessile or very shortly petiolate, ½–1¼ in. long, linear-oblong to oblong, mucronate, pale-green, rather rigid, coriaceous, longitudinally 5–7-nerved, transverse veinlets few. Flowers solitary, terminal or in the upper axils,, white, ⅓–¾ in. diam.; pedicels short, slender, erect. Perianth-segments subequal, ovate-lanceolate, acute. Stamens not half the length of the segments; filaments glabrous. Berry globose, ⅓ in. diam.—Callixene marginata, ''Lam. Illust.'' t. 248. C. parviflora, ''Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 632; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 254; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 281. C. melalantha, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 250. Luzuriaga parviflora, ''Kunth Enum. Pl.'' v. 281.

Trees or shrubs; trunk long or short, sometimes almost wanting. Leaves crowded at the top of the stem or its branches, more rarely alternate along the stem, sessile or petioled, very long, coriaceous; veins parallel, more or less oblique to the midrib. Flowers hermaphrodite, in terminal much-branched panicles, solitary or