594 POLYGONACEZ. [Muehlenbeckia. 
branchlets often scaberulous. Leaves when present few and scat- 
tered, petiolate or almost sessile, 4-1 in. long, linear or linear-lanceo- ; 
late, often dilated or almost hastate at the base, acute or obtuse, 
glabrous, sometimes scaberulous on the midrib beneath; stipules 
short, obliquely truncate. Flowers small, polygamous; those on 
the male plant in lax axillary simple or branched glabrous spikes, 
often with a few female flowers intermixed; on the female plant in 
few-flowered fascicles or short dense spikes, usually with 1 or two 
male flowers mixed with the females. Stigmas fimbriate. Perianth 
succulent or remaining unaltered in fruit. Nut exceeding the peri- 
anth, black, smooth and shining, triquetrous with the angles obtuse. 
—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 237. 
Var. muricatula.—Smailler and much more slender, branchlets often almost 
filiform. Leaves usually present, 4-4 in. long, linear. Perianth-segments mem- 
branous in fruit.—M. muricatula, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst, xxii. (1890) 482 
(perhaps a distinct species). 
Nort Istanp: Hawke’s Bay—Near the sea, Colenso! A. Hamilton! Upper 
Rangitikei, Bishop Williams, Petrie! Sour Is~tanp: Marlborough — Near 
Blenheim, Buchanan! Kirk! Canterbury—Waipara, Haast! Otago—Lower 
Waitaki, Hector and Buchanan; Kurow, Awamoko, Roxburgh, Petrie! Var. 
muricatula : North Island—Lake Taupo, Tryon! Ruapehu, H. Hill! Waipawa, 
A. Hanulton ! Sea-level to 3000 ft. December—March. 
Easily recognised by the prostrate rush-like stems, which are often entirely 
leafless. 
Orper LXVI. PIPERACE:. 
Herbs or shrubs, often aromatic and stimulating. Leaves alter- 
nate or opposite or whorled, simple, entire; stipules wanting, or 
2 connate, or adnate to the petiole. Flowers minute, hermaphrodite 
or unisexual, crowded on axillary or terminal catkin-like spikes, 
each subtended by a sessile or stipitate bract. Perianth wanting. 
Stamens 2 or more, hypogynous; filaments very short; anthers 
often jointed on the filaments, cells 2 or confluent. Ovary (except 
in the tribe Sawruree, which does not occur in New Zealand) 1-celled, 
with a single orthotropous ovule; style wanting or very short ; 
stigmas 1-6, various in shape. Fruit a small indehiscent berry. 
Seed solitary, globose or ovoid or oblong; aibumen copious, farina- 
ceous ; embryo very minute, enclosed in a sac at the apex of the 
seed. 
A large order, with some trifling exceptions confined to tropical and sub- 
tropical regions, and far more abundant in tropical America than anywhere else. 
Genera 8; species given at 1000, but probably overestimated. Aromatic and 
stimulating properties prevail through the greater part of the order. The 
common pepper has been used as a spice since the times of Alexander, and other 
species of Piper can be similarly employed. The use of the betel (Piper betel) as 
a masticatory is well known, also that of the kava (Piper methysticum) to prepare 
an intoxicating drink. The two New Zealand genera are the largest in the order, 
and have the widest range. 
