22 CLASS-BOOK OF BOTANY. 
latis, &c.). Note the very minute stipules (best seen ios earetn ee 
are just freshly opened), the flowers crowded into small sip ae fies 
(fascicles), the two small bracts on the pedicels, the regu as P i a 3 
free stamens with the connective produced into a sort of ¢ ut = pe. 
organ at the back, which bears a bead of nectar. 1ese 
plants are usually quite dicecious, the ¢ flowers having 
no pistil, and the ¢ flowers having stamens whose 
anthers contain no pollen. : 
Examine also in this connection the various species , 
De of Mapau (Pittosporwm), so common 1n the bush. Note 
we the absence of stipules on the leaves, the solitary or 
Fig. 20. Sta- clustered flowers with 5 sepals, petals, and stamens, 
menofMeli- the ovary with 2 or more cells (up to 5), and the woody: 
cytus(mag.). capsule dehiscing by valves. Note that the seeds are 
covered with a clear resinous secretion, and in longi-: 
tudinal section show a small embryo in hard endosperm. 
* 
4. CoickwHEp (Stellaria media). 
This commonest of weeds is a low-growing herb with 
feeble, succulent, trailing stems. Notice that the leaves are 
in opposite pairs, those lowest down having the longest petioles, 
while the upper ones are nearly sessile. The stems are terete* 
(circular or cylindrical in section), and between each pair of 
leaves runs a slender line of white hairs, while each node is 
distinctly swollen (tumid).t The leaves are simple, with 
entire margins and acute (sharply-pointed) apex. The in- 
florescence is of a well-marked type. If you follow up a stem 
towards the extremity, you find that it branches into two, 
and that in the fork a single flower stands on its pedicel. 
This flower terminates the main stem or axis, so that the 
srowth of the stem has to be carried on by the two side stems 
or lateral axes. very such inflorescence is said to be de- 
finite, and this well-marked form of it is called a cyme. 
But, as we shall meet with other forms of 
the cyme, this is further characterized as the 
dichotomous; (or 2-branched) cyme (see 
fig. 25, p. 24). You will find the following 
parts in the flower: 5 hairy, free, and in- 
ferior sepals, with white scarious (thin and 
papery) margins; 5 free hypogynous petals, 
each deeply cleft nearly to the base (bifid); 
3 or more (up to 10) free hypogynous stamens; 
Fig. 1. Bina and a small green globular ovary, with three. 
petalof Ghick- White curved styles on the top. In the height 
weed (mag.). | of summer the flowers have usually well-deve-. 
loped petals, but later in the season these be- 
* Lat. teres, tapering as a tree. 
t Lat. twmidus, swollen. 
{ Gr. dicha, in two parts; tome, a cutting. 
‘§ Lat. bifidus, twice-cleft. 
