Pittosporum. | PITTOSPORE. 61 
long, elliptical or elliptical-oblong, acute or subacute, slightly 
coriaceous, narrowed into slender petioles 4-lin. long; margins 
often undulate. Flowers polygamous or dicecious, small, yellowish, 
in terminal branched many-flowered compound umbels or corymbs ; 
peduncles and pedicels slender, spreading, silky-pubescent. Sepals 
ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, glabrous. Petals linear-oblong, spread- 
ing and recurved, more than twice as long as the sepals. Capsules 
numerous, small, +in. long, ovoid, acute, glabrous, 2—3-valved.— 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 22; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 21; Kirk, Forest Fl. 
t. 49; Students’ Fi. 52. P. elegans, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 25. 
P. microcarpum, Putterlich, Syn. Pittosp. 15. 
NortH AND SourH IsuaANDS: Common from the North Cape to the south 
of Otago. Tarata. September—October. 
The largest of the New Zealand species, and the only one with a compound 
inflorescence. The flowers are highly fragrant, and were formerly mixed by the 
Maoris with fat and used for anointing their bodies. 
Orver VI. CARYOPHYLLEA:. 
Herbs, very rarely woody at the base; branches usually swollen 
at the nodes. Leaves opposite, quite entire or minutely serrulate, 
often united at the base; stipules scarious or wanting. Flowers 
regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 4-4, free or cohering into a tubular 
calyx, imbricate. Petals 4-5 or occasionally absent, hypogynous 
or rarely perigynous, entire or lobed. Stamens 8-10, rarely fewer, 
inserted with the petals. Ovary tree, 1-celled or imperfectly 3-5- 
celled at the base; styles 2-5, free or more or less connate into a 
single style; ovules 2 to many, attached to a free central or basal 
placenta. Fruit usually capsular, splitting into as many or twice 
as many valves as styles, very rarely indehiscent. Seeds few or 
many ; albumen farinaceous, usually more or less surrounded by 
the narrow curved embryo. 
A large and very natural order, found in every part of the world, but most 
abundant in temperate regions, particularly of the Northern Hemisphere ; rare 
in the tropics, unless on high mountains. Genera about 38; species 1000 or 
more. The order contains some handsome garden plants, as the various kinds 
of carnations and pinks, but as a whole the species are insignificant, possessing 
no important properties or uses. Of the 4 genera indigenous in New Zealand, 
Colobanthus is confined to the south temperate zone; the remaining 3 occur 
in both hemispheres. More than 20 naturalised species have become well esta- 
blished, all of them of northern origin. 
Sepals wnited into a tubular calyx (Silenez). 
Calyx broadly 5-nerved. Styles2. Capsule deeply 4-valved 1. GyYPSOPHILA. 
Sepals free (Alsinez). 
Petals 2-fid. Styles3-5. Capsule globular or ovoid, open- 
ing with as many valves as styles. No stipules .. 2, STELLARIA. 
Petals wanting. Styles 4-5. Stamens equal in number to 
the sepals. No stipules ae oe ys 
Petals entire. Styles 3. Capsule 3-valved. Stipules 
scarious .. oe ee Ho ‘g Hi 
3. CoLOBANTHUS. 
4, SPERGULARIA. 
