Muhlenbeckia . ] 
LXIII. POLYGONEjE. 
237 
which are sometimes puberulous. Branches slender, tufted, spreading from 
a woody stock. Leaves small, petioled, in. long, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, 
flat, glabrous ; stipules short, truncate. Flowers solitary, axillary, pedicelled. 
Stigmas papillose. Perianth fleshy in fruit. 
Northern Island : Wairarapa valley, Colenso. Middle Island : abundant on the 
mountains, ascending tb 6500 ft., Bidwill, etc. Much smaller than either of the preceding, 
and of a very different habit, but possibly only a mountain variety ; it is excessively variable, 
and found also in the Australian and Tasmanian alps, where it attains a larger size. 
4. M. ephedroid.es, Hook. f . — Polygonum epltedroides ; — FI. N. Z. i. 
211. A shrubby, prostrate, diffusely branched, nearly leafless species. Stems 
6 in. to 2-3 ft. long, rigid, wiry, rush-like, deeply grooved, the twigs sca- 
berulous. Leaves none or few and scattered, j-1 in. long, petioled or sessile, 
linear, subacute, base often dilated or subhastate ; stipules short, truncate. 
Male fl. in simple, axillary, lax, quite glabrous spikes, with a few female 
flowers intermixed; — -fern. fl. often axillary and solitary. Stigmas fimbriate. 
Perianth rather fleshy in fruit. 
Northern Island : east coast, near the sea at Ahuriri, Colenso. Middle Island : 
Otago, Lower Waitaki, Hector and Buchanan. A remarkable species, resembling Rushes 
scattered on the ground. I suspect that the Polygonum. Cunninghamii, Meisuer, which 
forms impassable thickets in some parts of Australia, is the same plant as this. 
2. RUMEX, Linn. 
Herbs, rarely almost shrubby. Leaves usually long. Flowers hermaphro- 
dite, usually pedicelled, pendulous, small, green, whorled on branched spread- 
ing or close panicles. — Perianth of 6 pieces ; 3 inner enlarging, dry, veined, 
and closing over the fruit. Styles 3, short, stigmas fimbriate. Nut small, 
usually 3-gonous, enclosed in the much enlarged, dry, often toothed or ciliate 
perianth. 
A large genus, found in all temperate and many tropical parts of the world. 
1. R. flexuosus, Ford.; — Fl. N. Z. i. 211. Prostrate, glabrous, 
diffusely branched, 1-2 ft. long; branches flexuous, deeply grooved. Leaves 
4-8 in. long, narrow linear-oblong, plane or waved at the margin, obtuse or 
acute, base truncate acute or cordate, upper nearly sessile. Flowers in distant 
3-8-flowered whorls, lower whorls leafy. Peduncles curved, as long as the 
fruiting perianth. Inner lobes of fruiting perianth in. long, rhomboid, 
with long attenuated tips, veined, without thickened knobs, quite entire, or 
with 1-4 spines on each side, keeled in the middle, keel sometimes spinulose. 
— R. Cunninghamii, Meisn. in A. DC. Prodr. 14. 62 ; R. Brownianus, Raoul, 
Choix; R. Jimbriatm, A. Cunn. not Br. ; R. cuneifolius, (3, Fl. Antarct. i. 
67. 
Northern and Middle Islands : common, Banks and Solander, etc. Lord Auck- 
land’s Island,./.!). II. ; very nearly allied to the Australian R. Brownii, but apparently differ- 
ing in the prostrate habit. It is perhaps R. dumosus, A. Cunn., of New South Wales, which 
has the same habit. 
Besides the above, the common English Docks R. crispus, L., and R. obtusifolius, L., 
together with the small R. acetosa, have been introduced into New Zealand, and are quasi- 
indigenous ; some of them, indeed, are spreading at an enormous rate. 
