Hypericum.] IX. HTPEKICINEAE. 67 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands; STEWART Island: on the margins of lakes and streams in 

 lowland districts from Mongonui and Hokianga southward, but often local. 



The New Zealand plant difiers from the North American species with which it is usually 

 united in the constantly trimerous symmetry and larger number of seeds. 



Oedbb IX.-HYPEEIOINEAE. 



Sepals 4 or o, imbricate. Petals 1< or o, hypogynouSj imbricate. Stamens 



many or few, free or united at the base into 3 or 5 sets or bundles. Ovary 



free, 3— 7-celled by the union of the placentas in the axis, or 1-celled with 2—5 



parietal placentas. Styles as many as carpels, persistent, rarely united at the 



base. Ovules numerous in each cell or on each placenta. Fruit a capsule or 



rarely an indehiscent berry. Seeds without endosperm. Embryo straight or 



rarely curved. Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees, with opposite exstipulate simple 



leaves and terminal or rarely axillary flowers. 



Genbba, 8. Species, 225. Widely distributed in the temperate and warm regions of the 

 earth. 



1. HYPERICUM, Linn. 



Sepals 5. Petals 4. Stamens numerous, all free, or coherent in 3 or 5 

 sets or bundles. Ovary 1-3- or 5-celled. Fruit a capsule or berry. Seeds not 

 winged. Embryo straight. Herbs, often suffruticose, with usually thin leaves, 

 entire or rarely minutely toothed. 



Species, about 160; widely distributed. Only two species are indigenous in New Zealand. 



* Sepals equal. Fruit a capsule. 



Erect. Leaves subcordate . . . . . . • . • . . . 1. H. gramineum. 



Procumbent, soft. Leaves oblong or broadly obovate. Petals scarcely exceed- 

 ing sepals . . . . . . . . . . . - .. 2. H. japonicum. 



Procumbent, wiry. Petals longer than the unequal sepals . . . . ' H. hiimifusum. 



Stem erect. Leaves oblong, with pellucid glands .. .. .. .. * H. perforatum. 



** Sepals unequal. Fruit a berry. 

 Shrubby, 2ft.-4ft. high . . . . . . . . • . • ■ . . • H. Androsaemum. 



1- H. gramineum Forst., Prod. n. 281. Glabrous, strict, branched 

 from the base. Stems angular, 6in.— 12in. high, slender. Leaves rather dis- 

 tant, iin.— lin. long, stem-clasping, cordate, ovate, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, 

 obtuse, margins revolute. Flowers in terminal trichotomous cymes, with a pair 

 of bracts at the base of each fork. Sepals lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute 

 or obtuse-. Petals exceeding the sepals. Stamens usually free. Styles 3. 

 Capsule 1-celled, 3-valved, usually longer than the calyx. — DC, Prod. i. 548 ; 

 Hook, f ., Fl. N.Z. i. 36, Fl. Tasm. i. 53, and Handbk. 29 ; Benth., Fl. Austr. i. 

 182. H. japonicum, F. Muell. in 2nd Cens. Austr. PI. 14. Brathys Forsteri, 

 Spach. in Ann. Sc. Nat. (ser. ii.) 5, 367. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands : from Poverty Bay southwards to Otago, but often local. 

 Ascends to 1,800ft. 



2. H. japonicum, Thunb., Fl. Jap. 295, t. 31. Stems very slender, pro- 

 cumbent, much branched, ascending at the tips. Leaves much smaller, broadly 



