Caryophyllea.) FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 25 
easily recognized by its small size and very curious fruit. Mr. Cunningham confounded one state (with oblong 
leaves) with his P. cornifolium, and of two other varieties made species in his * Prodromus,’ as quoted. Leaves 
seldom more than an inch long, varying from X inch to 4 line in breadth, the young ones and branchlets pilose, 
acute in the broader states, and drawn out into a subulate point in the narrower, patent orreflexed. Pedicels at the 
ends of the branches, variable in length, 4-1 inch long, slender. Sepals and petals very slender, the latter three 
times as long as the former, yellow-red. Capsules on short hairy pedicels, ovate, subcordate, beaked, very unlike 
those of any other species, 4 inch long, coriaceous, hardly woody, two-valved ; valves generally cohering on one side, 
so that the capsule bursts like a follicle laterally ; seeds few and large. 
Nat. Oz». VII. CARYOPHYLLEA, Juss. 
Gen. I. STELLARIA, Linn. 
Sepala 5. Petala 5, bifida, rarius 0. Stamina 10, abortu 3-8. Styli 9. Capsula 1-locularis, ad 
medium 6-valvis, oligo- v. polysperma. 
Slender herbs or weeds, generally growing in grassy and often in cultivated places, with star-like greenish 
or white axillary flowers. Sepals five, lanceolate. Petals as many (or wanting), always bifid. Stamens three to 
ten, united at the very base into a perigynous ring. Styles three. Capsule splitting to the middle into six mem- 
branous valves.— The genus is found in all latitudes; and many of the species are so very similar, and vary 
so much, as to be difficult of discrimination wherever they are found. A European one, 8. media, is now appa- 
rently wild over both islands, and even in Lord Auckland's Group, where, however, I only saw it on the tomb of 
a French sailor, which it covered, the seed having no doubt been imported. Being neither in Forster's, Banks”, 
Menzies”, or other early herbaria, I shall only introduce it in a supplementary catalogue of introduced plants. 
(Name from stella, a star; the corolla resembling a star with five points.) 
1. Stellaria parviflora, Banks et Sol.; repens, glaberrima, laxe ceespitosa, ramis prostratis, foliis 
petiolatis orbiculatis mucronatis, petiolis rarissime pilosis lamina brevioribus v. sequilongis, pedunculis 
axillaribus folio brevioribus 1-2-floris medio bracteolatis, floribus parvis, sepalis 5 lanceolato-subulatis 
v. oblongis acuminatis, petalis 0 v. 5 sepalis brevioribus bipartitis, staminibus 5-10, capsula ad medium 
6-valvi, seminibus paucis (8), testa pallide brunnea profunde impresso-punctata. Banks et Sol. Ic. et MSS. 
in Mus. Brit. 
Has. Northern Island, Banks and Solander, Colenso, etc. Middle Island, Raoul, Lyall. 
A slender, pale green, flaccid, creeping weed. Stems 4—6 inches long, quite smooth, as is the whole plant, 
except occasionally the petioles, which have a few scattered hairs. Leaves nearly orbicular, rarely cordate at the 
base, pointed, 3-6 lines long, longer than the petioles. Peduncles axillary, shorter than the leaves, one- to two- 
flowered, with two small membranous bractez about the middle. Flowers very small, 3 line across. Sepals green, 
margined with white, sharp. Petals when present shorter than the sepals, white, split to the base, and hence 
appearing as ten. Stamens variable in number. Capsule nearly as long as the sepals. Seeds few and large, deeply 
pitted on the surface.—Nearly allied to the 8. flaccida of Tasmania, but differing in size, and in the form of the 
leaves. The small smooth flowers, stem, and leaves, distinguish it from 6. media. 
2. Stellaria elatinoides, Hook. fil.; pusilla, ceespitosa, glaberrima, caulibus ascendentibus suberectisve 
basi repentibus tenellis crassiusculisve, foliis (parvis 1-2 lin. longis) oblongis linearibusve subacutis in 
petiolum brevem angustatis, floribus pro planta magnis solitariis axillaribus v. pedunculo sepalis zquilongo 
impositis, sepalis ovatis lanceolatisve subulato-acuminatis, petalis 0, staminibus 6-10, capsula globosa 
perianthio equilonga ad medium 6-valvi, seminibus 2-6 magnis grosse tuberculatis. 
Haz. Northern Island; grassy banks on the east coast; at Hawkes’ Bay, Lake Rotoa-tara, etc., Colenso. 
F 
