Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/763

Rostkovia.] about ⅓ in. long, narrow ovoid-oblong, obtusely trigonous, acute, chestnut-brown, coriaceous, smooth and shining, 3-valved. Seeds numerous, small, pale, produced at both ends into a long pearly-white appendage.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 292. E. novæ-zealandiæ, ''Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iv. (1872) 227, t. 16. Marsippospermum gracile, Buchen. in Abh. Ver. Bremen,'' vi. (1879) 374; ''Monog. Junc.'' 68.

Perennial or more rarely annual herbs; stems usually densely tufted. Leaves mostly or all radical, stout or slender, terete, compressed or flat, sometimes reduced to sheathing scales. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, in axillary or terminal fascicles or cymes or panicles. Perianth-segments 6, glumaceous, distinct, lanceolate or oblong, margins often scarious, the 3 outer often with the midrib keeled or thickened. Stamens 6 or rarely 3. Ovary more or less perfectly 3-celled, rarely 1-celled; ovules usually numerous in each cell; style divided to the middle into 3 linear stigmatic lobes. Capsule completely or incompletely 3-celled, 3valved. Seeds small, ovoid or obovoid; testa minutely striate and reticulate.