Gunnera. | HALORAGES. 153 
or wanting. Ovary 1-celled; styles 2, rarely 4, linear, papillose, 
stigmatic from the base; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit a small 
fleshy or coriaceous drupe; seed adherent to the pericarp; embryo 
very minute. 
From 20 to 25 species are known, nearly half of them being endemic in 
New Zealand. The remainder are chiefly found in America, ranging from 
Mexico to Chili, Juan Fernandez, Fuegia, and the Falkland Islands. There are 
also outlying species in South Africa, Java, Tasmania, and the Sandwich 
Islands. 
The New Zealand species of Gwnnera are very imperfectly understood, and 
are much in need of a thorough revision, which should be based as far as 
possible upon a study of the various forms in a living state. The following 
account, although as complete as the material at my command will permit, is 
‘deficient in many respects, and I have been compelled to omit all notice of 
several doubtful plants from inability to refer them to their proper places until 
more complete specimens are obtained. The student should be careful to gather 
his flowering and fruiting specimens in the same locality, and if possible from 
the same patch, the similarity between the foliage of several of the species 
making it difficult to be sure that the specimens are properly matched unless 
this is done. It is also much to be desired that a regular series of specimens, 
both flowering and fruiting, should be taken at fixed intervals during the season, 
there being reason to suppose that both inflorescence and fruit exhibit differences 
at different periods of the year. 
* Scapes bisexual; female flowers at the base. 
Leaves coriaceous, orbicular or reniform, crenate-dentate, 
often 3-5-lobed Al of 
Leaves rather thin, ovate or ovate- cordate ae ihe 
7. monorwca. 
. G. microcarpa. 
bo ee 
** Scapes unisexual. 
Slender, 1-4in. Leaves ovate or ovate-cordate. Fruiting 
scape red, exceeding the leaves. peenes obconic, Bins 
red or yellow ar 3. 
Tall and stout, sometimes 12in, high. Leaves ovate or 
oblong. Fruiting scape equalling the leaves or longer. 
Drupe obconic, 4in., red... 4. G. prorepens. 
Leaves orbicular- cordate, sharply and. minutely toothed. 
Scapes shorter than the leaves. Drupes ;4,in., oblong 
Leaves narrow-ovate to lanceolate, acute, cuneate at the 
base, coarsely dentate 
Leaves thick and fleshy, broadly ovate, obtuse, cuneate at 
the base, crenate-lobed Be 
Very stout ‘and coriaceous. Leaves deltoid- ovate, » minutely 
toothed, cuneate at the base . G. Hamilton. 
1. G. monoica, Raoul in Ann. Sci. Nat. Ser. ii. 2 (1844) 117.— 
A slender herb with numerous creeping rhizomes and tufts of radical 
leaves, often forming broad matted patches, glabrous or sparsely 
covered with short white hairs, especially on the petioles and nerves 
of the leaves. Leaves 4-lin. diam., orbicular or reniform, cor- 
date or truncate at the base, obscurely 3-5-lobed and crenate, or 
crenate alone; petioles 1-3in. long. Panicle very slender, 1—d in. 
long, usually longer than the leaves. Male flowers occupying the 
upper three- quarters of the panicle, sessile or shortly pedicelled ; 
each flower consisting of 2 stamens arising from between 2 minute 
Q 
. flavida. 
(ep) 
. densiflora. 
G. dentata. 
G. arenaria. 
Cops tr Sa BO 
