LIII. HALORAGEiE (OLIVER). 405 



various, stigma papillose or plumose. Fruit small, a nut or drupaceous. 

 Seed with a fleshy albumen. — Herbs (or undershrubs), often aquatic. 

 Leaves radical or cauline, opposite or alternate, usually exstipulate. 

 Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, or in paniculate spikes. 



A small Natural Order, generally distributed over the Globe. 

 Flowers axillary, fascicled Stamens 4-8. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, 



4-ovuled 1. Serpicula. 



Flowers in spiciform panicled spikes. Stamens 2-1. Ovary inferior, 



1-celled, 1-ovuled 2. Gunnera. 



Flowers axillary, solitary, achlamydeous. Stamen 1. Ovary 4-lobed, 



4-celled 3. Callitriche. 



1. SERPICULA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 675. 



Flowers minute in axillary fascicles, monoecious or polygamous. 

 Male flowers : Calyx-tube short, lobes 4. Petals 4, linear or oblan- 

 ceolate, concave above. Stamens 8 or 4 ; filaments short or ; anthers 

 linear, basifixed. Female flowers : Calyx-tube ovoid, 8-ribbed, or with 

 8 rows of 3 or 4 tubercles, sometimes confluent, to each ; teeth 4, ovate 

 or deltoid. Petals as in male. Ovary 1-celled with 4 pendulous ovules ; 

 stigmas 4, papillose. Nut minute, 1-seeded, crustaceous. Seed albu- 

 minous. — Low herbs, glabrous or pubescent. Leaves opposite or alter- 

 nate, simple. Male flowers in some species on slender pedicels ; female 

 sessile or subsessile. 

 A small genus of 2-4 species, wide-spread in the Tropics. 



1. S. repens, Linn.; DC. Prod. iii. 65. var. Stems creeping-, often 

 rooting at intervals, minutely hirsute puberulous or giabrate. Leaves 

 alternate, linear or narrow-oval, rather obtuse, entire or obsoletely 

 denticulate, glabrous, \ in. long- more or less, X5-2V i Q - broad. Flowers 

 minute, sessile or subsessile, fascicled in the axils. Calyx-teeth of 

 fertile flower minute, triangular. Petals narrow-oval, narrowed to 

 base, equalling or exceeding the calyx-tube. Stamens 4 ; anthers 

 oblong, subsessile or filiform, filaments very short. Nuts with 8 rows 

 of tubercles, 3 or 4 in each row. 



Upper Guinea. Nupe, Niger, Barter I 

 Lower Guinea. Huilla, Angola, Dr. Welwitsch! 



Some of the specimens cited correspond with S. brasiliensis, Camb. (Fl. Bras. Merid. 

 ii. 250), which 1 can only regard as a variety of S. repens. 

 Grows also at the Cape. 



2. GUNNERA, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant, i. 676. 



Flowers monoecious or polygamous, minute, spicate ; spikes in spici- 

 form panicles. Calyx- lobes small, 2 or more ; tube in fertile flowers 

 adnate to the ovary. Petals or 1-2. Stamens 2 or 1 j anthers 

 ellipsoidal, basifixed, subsessile or filaments distinct. Ovary inferior 

 1-celled} with a solitary, pendulous ovule ; styles 2, subulate, uni- 

 formly papillose. Fruit a small nut or drupaceous with a crustaceous 



