124 FLORA OP TASMANIA. [Haloragea. 
Gen. IV. CALLITRICHE, L. 
Flores plerumque monoici, bibracteolati v. ebracteolati. <J Calyx et corolla 0. Stamen 1. $ 0v«- 
f*8«a 4-lobum, 4-loculare. Styli 2, filiformes, papillosi. Fructus compressus, indehiscens, constans carpellis 
4 unilocularibus monospermis. Semina pendula, teretiuscula, albuininosa. — Herbas tenella, aquaticce ; foliis 
opjjositis, integerrimis ; floribus subsets* conspieuis. 
A genus of water-plants, found in all temperate and many warm latitudes at a sufficient elevation above the 
sea-level ; the species are extremely variable, growing in water of various depths, and sometimes on the surface of 
wet soil in humid situations. The Tasmanian species is almost a cosmopolitan plant.— Slender, aquatic herbs, with 
opposite, entire, linear or spathulate leaves, the upper often largest, crowded, and spread out in a stellate manner 
on the surface of the water, whence the English name " Star-wort." — Flowers axillary, usually monoecious. Males 
of a solitary stamen, with two caducous bracts at its base, which are sometimes absent ; filament longer than in 
Haloragece generally, and anther also different from that typical of the Order, being didymous, with short cells, and 
the valves recurved from above, so that the anther appears after dehiscence to be one-celled, and to have burst 
transversely across the crown. Female flotcers with two bracts or none, consisting of four flat carpels united in 
pairs, and two long, subulate, recurved, papillose styles (or rather stigmata). Fruit, the four carpels rather indu- 
rated, each one-celled, one-seeded. Seeds pendulous, with a thin, membranous testa, fleshy albiunen, and terete 
embryo. (Name from ko\os, beautiful, and 6pi£, a hair; in allusion to the long, slender stems.) 
1. Callitriche verna (Linn. Sp. PL 2) ; foliis 3-nerviis, fl. ? subsessili. — Be Cancl Prodr. i. 70; 
Fl. Antarct. i. 11, ii. 272; FL N. Zeal. i. 64. C. aquaticu, Smith, Engl Bot. t. 722. {Gvrm, 1960.) 
Var. terrestris; caule rigidiore, foliis brevibus. {Gunn, 2021.) 
Hab. Common in still, fresh water, margins of rivers, etc.— Yar. 0. In moist ground, Circular Head, 
Gunn. {v. v.) 
Distrib. South-eastern Australia, New Zealand, the Antarctic Islands, Europe, Northern Asia and 
America. 
Stems slender, herbaceous, green, when floating often a span to 2 feet long ; in var. /3 more rigid, shorter, and 
prostrate. Leaves membranous, spathulate, J-f inch long, blunt, three-nerved.— In Tasmanian and New Zealand 
specimens the male and female flowers are sometimes collateral in the same axil and on the same pedicel, when the 
single stamen appears as if it belonged to the same flower with the single pistil, but the insertion of the filament 
is manifestly not hypogynous, but arising from the very short pedicel of the female flower. The bracts are often 
absent in this form. 
Gen. V. GUNNERA, L. 
(Milligania, H.f.) 
Flores bracteolati, 1-sexuales v. hermaphroditi. Calycis tubus teres v. angulatus; limbus 2-3-lobus. 
Petala v. 2, coriacea, decidua. Stamina 1-2 ; antheris innatis, 2-locularibus, loculis lateraliter dehiscen- 
tibus. Ovarium 1-loculare, 1-ovulatum ; stigmata 2, elongata, simplicia (rarius 4, per paria cohgerentia), ubique 
papillosa. Fructus drupaceus, indehiscens, endocarpio crustaceo v. osseo. Semen pendulum ; testa mem- 
branacea, parietibus loculi saspe adhserente; albumine copioso carnoso; embryone minimo cordato; radicula 
brevi obtusa hilo proxima. — Herbse ; foliis alternis. 
The Tasmanian species is the only Australian representative of this very curious genus, which is almost confined to 
the south temperate and Antarctic zones, but which numbers very few species ; these are chiefly insular, there being 
i presentath , - in Jas i Xe« Zealand, the Society and Sandwich Islands, Peruvian Andes, Chili, Fuegia, and the Cape 
of Good Hope. The Tasmanian one differs from its congeners in its capitate female flowers.— Herbs, with alternate 
