628 EUPHORBIACER. [Huphorbia. 
1. B. glauca, Forst. Prodr. n. 208.—A tall stout perfectly 
glabrous smooth and glaucous herb 1-3 ft. high. Stems from a 
creeping rhizome, erect, terete, lower portion marked with the scars 
of the fallen leaves, leafy above, umbellately branched at the top. 
Leaves crowded, 1-4 in. long, linear- or lanceolate-obovate to oblong- 
obovate, obtuse or mucronate, sessile, quite entire. Umbels broad ; 
rays 5-6, each once or twice forked; floral leaves much broader 
than the cauline, broadly oblong. Involucres almost concealed by 
the floral leaves, shortly pedicelled, campanulate, +in. diam. ; 
glands 4-5, dark-purple, crescent-shaped. Capsule nearly as large 
as a pea, pendulous, globose, quite smooth and glabrous. Seeds 
smooth, greyish.—A. fiich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 352; A. Cunn. Precur. 
n. 8389; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 227; Handb. 
N.Z. Fl. 248. 
NortH anp SourH IsLanps: Common along the shores from the North 
Cape to the south of Otago. Waiuatwa. October—February. Also 
found in Norfolk Island. 
2. PORANTHERA, Rudge. 
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes woody at the base. 
Leaves narrow, alternate, stipulate. Flowers racemose or subum- 
bellate at the tips of the branches, or solitary in the axils of the 
upper leaves, moncecious or dicecious. Male flowers: Calyx deeply 
divided into 5 segments imbricate in the bud. Petals 5, small, 
sometimes wanting; anthers 4-celled, cells free, opening by ter- 
minal pores. Rudimentary ovary of 3 clavate bodies. Female 
flowers: Calyx and petals of the males. Stamens wanting. Ovary 
broad, 3-celled; styles 3, each divided into 2 linear branches ; 
ovules 2 in each cell. Capsule depressed, globose, splitting into 3 
2-valved cocci. Seeds reticulate; embryo terete, curved, cotyle- 
dons not broader than the radicle. 
A small genus of 6 species, 5 of which are Australian, 1 of them extending: 
to New Zealand. The remaining species is endemic in New Zealand. 
Siender, diffusely branched. Leaves flat or nearly so. 
Flowers in terminal racemes Ec ae .. 1. P. microphylla. 
Compactly branched. Leaves with the margins revolute 
to the middle. Flowers solitary in the upper axils .. 2. P. alpina. 
1. P. microphylla, Brong. in Dup. Voy. Cog. Bot. 218, t. 50B.— 
A slender perfectly glabrous herb; branches diffuse, 6-9 in. long, 
prostrate at the base, ascending at the tips. Leaves opposite or 
alternate, 1-4 in. long, linear-obovate or spathulate, obtuse, gradu- 
ally narrowed into a rather long petiole; margins flat or very 
slightly recurved. Flowers minute, greenish-white, in terminal 
bracteate racemes; bracts linear-subulate, lower ones exceeding 
the flowers. Petals linear, usually present in both sexes. Capsule 
membranous, depressed. Seeds small, brown, granulate.—Benth. 
Fl. Austral. vi. 56; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. (1879) 482. 
