Hectorella. | PORTULACES. 73 
Students’ Fl. 65. H. elongata, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. 
(1884) 395, t. 35. 
Sourn Istanpd: Canterbury—Mountains above Arthur’s Pass, 7’. F. C.; 
Mount Cook district, F. G. Gibbs, T. F.C. Otago— Mount Alta; Mount 
Aspiring, Hector and Buchanan! Hector Mountains, Dunstan Mountains, and 
all high mountains west of the Clutha River, Petrie ! Altitudinal range from 
4000 to 6500 ft. 
Mr. Buchanan's H. elongata, based on more laxly branched specimens with 
longer linear-oblong leaves, looks different at first sight, but (as Mr. Kirk has 
remarked) is connected with the typical state by numerous transitional forms. 
Orper VIII. BLATINEA. 
Small herbs or undershrubs, usually growing in wet places. 
Leaves opposite, stipulate. Flowers minute, regular, hermaphro- 
dite. Sepals and petals each 2-5, free, imbricate. Stamens equal 
in number to the petals or twice as many, hypogynous, free ; an- 
thers versatile. Ovary free, 2-5-celled; styles as many as the cells, 
free from the base; stigmas capitate; ovules many, attached to the 
inner angles of the cells, anatropous. Capsule septicidal, the valves 
falling away from the persistent axis and septa. Seeds straight or 
curved; albumen wanting, or nearly so; embryo terete, radicle 
next the hilum. 
A small and unimportant order, spread over the whole world. Genera 2; 
species about 25. 
1. ELATINE, Linn. 
Small prostrate glabrous annuals, growing in water or wet 
places. Leaves opposite or whorled. Flowers small, axillary, 
usually solitary. Sepals 2-4, membranous, obtuse. Petals the 
same number. Ovary globose. Capsule membranous, the septa 
remaining attached to the axis or evanescent. Seeds cylindric, 
straight, or curved, longitudinally ridged and _ transversely 
wrinkled. 
Species about 6, found in most temperate and subtropical regions, 
1. E. americana, Arn. in Hdinb. Journ. Nat. Sc. i. 431, 
var. australiensis, Benth. Fl. Austral. 1. 178.—A small prostrate 
smooth and glabrous green or reddish annual, forming matted 
patches 1-4 in. diam. ; stems branched, rooting at the nodes, 
succulent. Leaves small, shortly petioled, 4-4 in. long, ovate or 
obovate or oblong, obtuse; margin usually furnished with a few 
distant glands; stipules minute, fugacious. Flowers minute, 
solitary, sessile. Sepals 3, obtuse. Petals often absent, when 
present 3, longer than the sepals. Styles 3. Stamens usually 3. 
Capsule globose-depressed, septa complete or evanescent at ma- 
turity. Seeds very minute.—Airk, Students’ Fl. 66. H. ameri- 
cana, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 27; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 28. EH. gra- 
tioloides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 610. 
