Coprosma.| RUBIACEAE. 183 
11. NERTERA, Banks & Sol. 
Calyx-tube ovoid, the limb truncate or obscurely 4-to sai Foi esos 
Corolla tubular or funnel-shaped, 4—5-lobed, with lobes yalva Stamens 
4—5, inserted at the base of the corolla, exserted, the kta basifixed, 
pendulous. Styles bifid to the base into filiform exserted branches. Ovary 
2-celled, with 1 erect anatropous ovule in each cell. rupe fleshy, 
containing 2 plano-convex coriaceous pyrenae. Seed-coat membranous 
Embryo axile in fleshy albumen, the cotyledons foliaceous. — Small 
creeping herbs. Stipules one on each side, connate with the petioles. 
Flowers solitary, sessile, axillary or terminal, hermaphrodite or unisexual. 
“4 > ene wide eA diffused over the southern hemisphere, most species being 
natives . Zealand, one species extending over the Andes to Mexico and another 
to Java the Phitippir nes. 
. N. depressa, Banks. — DC. Prod. IV, 451. — Glabrous, the slender 
Sarai stem creeping and rooting, freely branching, 1 to several 
ft. in length. Leaves fleshy, with neryes imperceptible, broadly oblong, 
y acumi 
ar, 
a petiole of half their length or less. Stipules small triangular, connate 
inside the petioles, the connecting portion very low; the uppermost pair, 
which supports the flower, often deeply and broadly emarginate, forming 
alyx 
2 semilunar lobes. Flowers terminal, sessil 1/2’, truncate. Corolla 
1”, thin, greenish yellow, urceolate or tubular 4fid to the middle or 
beyond. Stamens as lo s the corolla or satis! with short, rhe 
e 
Seeds dorsally compressed, Embryo small, at the base of fleshy albumen, 
the radicle longer than the cotyledons. — Mann, Enum. no. rr 
Wawra, in Flora, 1874, p. 330. — Both esr se and De Candolle 
attribute a terminal flower to N. depressa, while in Benth. and Hooker's 
Genera Plant. all species are credited with axillary flowers. 
On all islands, at altitudes of 2500—5000 ft., in woods, creeping on the ground or on 
old trunks. , with slight modifications of — from biagion a’ Acunha 
—- the Falkland Islands ane pam over the Andes to Mexi me 
uthors even combine with it plants from Java, Borneo and tase, which have however 
poten leaves and lanceolate stipules. 
12. COPROSMA, Forst. 
Flowers unisexual, dioecious in all’ Hawaiian species. 
minute, cup-shaped, indistinctly toothed. Corolla 3 to 4 times as long, 
funnel- or bell-shaped, 4—9-lobed, with lobes erect, valvate in the bud. 
Stamens 4— 11, inserted at the base of the corolla, the slender erp 
exserted, the linear apiculate anthers affixed at their bases. Fem. fl. C: 
void or urceolate, with a dentate, lobed or entire and produced i 
Male fl. Calyx 
