■\ 





Sri^w^^r 





Chapter XVII. 



Order XVII.— STACKHOUSI^. 



Chakacteh of the Obdek. — Herbs, perennial rooted. 

 Leaves, narrow, alternate, almost exstipulate. Flowers, in 

 terminal spikes or raeemes, greenish-white or yellow, hermaph- 

 rodite, regular. Calyx with a small, hemisplierieal tube, and 

 5 small, imbricate lobes. Petals, 5, inserted at the edge of a 

 disk which lines the calyx tube, erect, linear or spathulate, 

 free, or united by their edges above the base only, their ti]is 

 imbricate, reflexed. Stamens, 5, free, erect; filaments, slender, 



2 shorter than the others. Ovary, sessile, free, sub-globose, 

 2-5-ceIled, and lobed or parted; styles, 2-5, connate or free ; 

 stigma, simple, or 2-5-lobed ; ovules, solitary, and erect in the 

 cells. Fruit, of 2-5 indehiscent, globose, angled or winged 

 cocci, attached to a central column. Testa, membranous ; 

 albumen, fleshy ; embryo, straight. — Handbook of the New 

 Zealand Flora, p. 42. 



© 



Description of the Order.- 



IFFERING in so many points, this order has heen universally adopted as 

 distinct from Celastmcecc, to which it was formerly allied as a genus. It 

 consists of about 20 species, all Australian excepting two, one from New 

 Zealand, and the other from the Philippine Islands. They are all herbs, 

 with a perennial, often woody stock, and simple or little-branched stems. 

 The flowers are very minute, white or yellow, in a terminal raceme. None 

 of the species present any interest beyond their botanical structure. 





Specific Chabactee. — S. minima (Hook., F.) — A minute, 

 slender, glabrous herb, with slender, running rhizomes, send- 



1. STACKHOUSIA {Smith.) 



fctiriL" V.'tlAKAl. IVtO.. — o. intitt 



, glabrous herb, with slende 

 —5 _,^ erect, leafy branches, 1-2 ii.. .. 

 scattered, linear or obovate, acute, 



oiciiiier, giiiuiuua uei u, mm oicudcr, running rliizomes, send- 

 ing up erect, leafy branches, 1-2 in. high. Leaves, ^\ long, 



fleshy, quite entire. 



Flowers, very minute, in few-flowered spikes. Calyx lobes, 5, 

 spreading. Petals united at the middle. Anthers, pubescent. 

 Ovary, 3dobed ; style, 3-cleft ; cocci, usually one only ripens. 

 —Handbook of the New Zealand Flora, p. 42. 



Description, etc. — This very minute herb is indigenous to both Islands. In the 

 North it is found on the open lands of the East Coast, and in the Middle Island in 

 clefts of rocks on the Ribbon Wood Range. It bears very minute greenish-white flowers, 

 and, as a plant, would be deemed insignificant, rarely growing above two inches in height. 



