~_P —_ -. 
rae Cr~wH : 3. Pete, 144m BO*% S27. Ams to |: > 27: 
542 EUPHORBIACEAE. | Huphorbia. 
1. E. glauea Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 208.—A tall stout perfectly 
glabrous smooth and glaucous herb 1-3 ft. high. Stems from a creeping 
rhizome, erect, terete, lower portion marked with the scars of the fallen 
leaves, leafy above, umbellately branched at the top. Leaves crowded, 
1-4 in. long, linear- or lanceolate-obovate to oblong-obovate, obtuse or 
mucronate, sessile, quite entire. Umbels broad; rays 5-6, each once or 
twice forked ; floral leaves much broader than the cauline, broadly oblong. 
Involucres almost concealed by the floral leaves, shortly pedicelled, cam- 
panulate, }in. diam.; glands 4-5, dark-purple, crescent-shaped. Capsule 
nearly as large as a pea, pendulous, globose, quite smooth and glabrous. 
Seeds smooth, greyish—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 352; A. Cunn. 
Precur. (1838) n. 339; Raoul Choix (1846) 42; Hook. f. Fl, Nov. Zel.i (1853) 
927; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 248; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 628. 
North AND SoutuH Is~tanps, STEwaArtT IsLanD, CHATHAM ISLANDS: Common 
along the shores from the North Cape southwards. Waruatua. October—February. 
Also found in Norfolk Island. 
2. PORANTHERA Rudge. '“11. 
Annual or perennial herbs, sometimes woody at the base. Leaves 
narrow, alternate, stipulate. Flowers racemose or subumbellate at the 
tips of the branches, or solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, monoecious 
or dioecious. Male flowers: Calyx deeply divided into 5 segments imbri- 
cate in the bud. Petals 5, small, sometimes wanting; anthers 4-celled, 
cells free, opening by terminal pores. Rudimentary ovary of 3 clavate 
bodies. Female flowers: Calyx and petals of the males. Stamens wanting. 
Ovary broad, 3-celled; styles 3, each divided into 2 linear branches ; ovules 
2 in each cell. Capsule depressed, globose, splitting into 3 2-valved cocci. 
Seeds reticulate ; embryo terete, curved, cotyledons not broader than the 
radicle. 
A small genus of 6 species, 5 of which are Australian, 1 of them extending to New 
Zealand. The remaining species is endemic in New Zealand. 
Slender, diffusely branched. Leaves flat or nearly so. Flowers 
in terminal racemes dy. i aN bo .. L. P. microphylla. 
Compactly branched. Leaves with the margins revolute to the ' 
middle. Flowers solitary in the upper axils A! .. 2 P. alpina. 
1. P. microphylla Brong. in Dup. Voy. Cog. Bot. 218, t. 50B.— 
A slender perfectly gle : Ee a ~~ 
at the base, ascendin: 
long, linear-obovate 01 
long petiole; margir 
greenish-white, in te 
lower ones exceeding 
sexes, Capsule mem 
—Benth. Fl. Austral. 
432; Man. N.Z. Fl. ( 
Sours Isuanp: Nelson—WNothofagus forest in the Maitai Valley, 7. F. C. ; Cobb 
Valley (north-west Nelson), F. G. Gibbs / Marlborough—Pelorus and Tinline Valleys, 
abundant, J. H. Macmahon ! December—January. 
Widely distributed in Australia and Tasmania. 
2. P. alpina Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv (1882) 300.—Perfectly 
glabrous, 2-5 in. high; branches numerous, decumbent or suberect, usually 
densely compacted and interlaced, rarely open, scarred, often somewhat woody 
+ 
