Portulacee. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 78 
Passion-flowers in being dicecious and tetramerous. Sepals and petals four, oblong, blunt, with a ring of filaments 
at the base of the latter. Stamens four (those of the female flower, small, empty); filaments united at the base 
into a column, above filiform and diverging. Antherstwo-celled. Ovarium stipitate (stipes surrounded by the tube 
of filaments), ovoid, one-celled, with three short styles, terminated by capitate stigmata, and three parietal many- 
ovuled placentee. Berry fleshy, globose, many-seeded ; seeds compressed, oblong; testa crustaceous, rugose.—This 
genus is almost wholly a native of South America, where very many kinds are found, some of which are great orna- 
ments of English stoves; three or four are found in India; and a similar genus, Disemma, Lab., inhabits Australia, 
Norfolk Island, New Caledonia, and probably other Pacific Islands. M. Raoul has made of the New Zealand plant 
a new genus, I think unnecessarily. (Name from patior, I suffer, and flos, a flower; because the South American 
missionaries saw the emblems of our Saviour’s passion in this plant.) 
1. Passiflora tetrandra, Banks et Sol.; glaberrima, folis petiolatis ovatis ovato-lanceolatisve inte- 
gerrimis acuminatis eglandulosis, involucris nullis, pedunculis axillaribus 2—4-floris, floribus abortu monoicis 
4-meris, stylis 3. Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. DC. Prodr. A. Cunn. Prodr. Tetrapathea australis, Raoul, 
3-9. bite 
Haz. Northern and Middle Islands; not uncommon in dry woods, Banks and Solander, etc. Fl. De- 
cember. Nat. name, “ Ku-papa,” R. Cunn. (Cultivated in England.) 
Leaves 3—4 inches long, linear or ovate, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, narrowed at the base, shining above. 
Flowers small for the genus (4—4 inch), pale green. Fruit globular, yellow-red, 1-14 inch broad.— The Spanish 
missionaries of South America compared the digitate leaves (of one species) and tendrils to the hands and flagella 
with which our Saviour was scourged; the ten pieces of the perianth to the ten faithful disciples; the corona of 
filaments to the crown of thorns, the five stamina to the wounds, and the three stigmata to the nails used at the 
crucifixion. 
NAT. Oz». XXX. PORTULACEA, Juss. 
Gen. I. CLAYTONIA, Z. 
Sepala 2, ovata, concava. Petala 5, membranacea. Stamina 5, petalis opposita et basi inserta. 
Ovarium l-loculare; stylo erecto, 3-fido. Capsula 1-locularis, 3-valvis. Semina 3, compressa, funiculis 
elongatis placente basilari inserta; testa atra, crustacea. 
A small, creeping, tender, succulent, pale green, herbaceous plant, with linear opposite leaves, membranous and 
cuneate at the base, and scapes of solitary, white, very membranous flowers. Sepals two, ovate, concave. Petals five, 
white, membranous, obovate. Stamens five, opposite and attached to the base of the petals. Ovary ovate, one-celled, 
with a straight three-cleft style. Capsule one-celled, three-valved, with three seeds attached to the base of the cell by 
long funiculi; testa black, shining. .Embryo terete, curved, in a mealy albumen. This, with the present exception, 
is entirely a North American genus, extending from the Arctic Circle to the Southern United States. C. Australasica 
differs from its congeners in its one-flowered scape; it is common in Australia and Tasmania. (Named in honour 
of John Clayton, an English traveller in North America and a botanist.) 
1. Claytonia Australasien, Hook. fil. ; ceespitosa, sarmentosa, foliis anguste linearibus, petiolis basi mem- 
branaceis dilatatis connatis, scapis axillaribus 1-floris. Hook. le. Plant. t. 298. 
Has. Middle Island. Milford Sound, ya. 
Very variable in size, Australian specimens being from 2 inches to a foot high. Stems creeping, 6—8 inches 
long. Leaves 1-4 inches long, rather broader and spathulate above, blunt, nerveless. Scapes shorter than or as 
long as the leaves, fleshy. Flowers pure white, 1—2 inch across. 
