568 GUTTIFERAE. | Zypericum. 
ovate or obovate-oblong, obtuse, quite entire, often glaucous, marked 
with pellucid dots, sessile; margins usually flat. Flowers smaller than in 
H. gramineum, solitary or in few-flowered cymes; pedicels short, slender, 
Sepals oblong or ovate, obtuse or subacute. Petals slightly exceeding the 
sepals. Capsule broadly ovoid, small_—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 387; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 29; Benth. Fl. Austral. i (1863) 182; Z. Kirk 
Students’ Fl. (1899) 67; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 75. H. pusillum 
Choisy Prodr. Hyp. (1821) 50; A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 596. 
NortH AND SourH Istanps: Not uncommon in moist places, margin of swamps, 
&c., from the North Cape to Otago. Altitudinal range from sea-level to over 3000 ft. 
Extends northwards through Australia and the Malay Archipelago to India, China, 
and Japan. Very closely allied to the preceding, but usually readily distinguished by 
its procumbent habit, broader flatter obtuse leaves and smaller fewer flowers. 
The European H. humifusum Linn. has become naturalized in many places, and 
may easily be mistaken for H. japonicum. It is usually larger, with stiffer and more 
wiry stems and branches, larger and more pointed leaves which have a row of black 
glandular dots just inside the margin, and larger flowers with more pointed often 
glandular-toothed sepals. 
Family LXIX. ELATINACEAE. 
Small herbs or undershrubs, usually growing in wet places. Leaves 
opposite, stipulate. Flowers minute, regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals and 
petals each 2-5, free, imbricate. Stamens equal in number to the petals 
or twice as many, hypogynous, free ; anthers versatile. Ovary free, 2—5- 
celled ; styles as many as the cells, free from the base : stigmas capitate ; 
ovules many, attached to the inner angles of the cells, anatropous. Capsule 
septicidal, the valves falling away from the persistent axis and septa. Seeds 
straight or curved ; albumen wanting, or nearly so ; embryo terete, radicle 
next the hilum. 
é A small and unimportant family, spread over the whole world. Genera 2 ; species 
about 30. 
ELATINE Linn. 
Small prostrate glabrous annuals, growing in water or wet places, 
Leaves opposite or whorled. Flowers small, axillary, usually solitary. 
Sepals 2-4, membranous, obtuse. Petals the same number. Ovary globose. 
Capsule membranous, the septa remaining attached to the axis or evanescent. 
me ke straight, or curved, longitudinally ridged and transversely 
wrinkled. 
Species about 12, found in most temperate and subtropical regions. 
1. E. americana Arn. in Edinb. Journ. Nat. Sci. i (1830) 431, 
var. australiensis Benth. Fl. Austral. i (1863) 178.—A small prostrate smooth 
and glabrous green or reddish annual, forming matted patches 1-4 in. diam. : 
stems branched, rooting at the nodes, succulent. Leaves small, shortly 
petioled, §-3 in. long, ovate or obovate or oblong, obtuse ; margin usually 
furnished with a few distant glands - stipules minute, fugacious. Flowers 
minute, solitary, sessile. Sepals 3, obtuse. Petals often absent, when 
present 3, longer than the sepals. Styles 3. Stamens usually 3. Capsule 
globose-depressed, septa complete or evanescent at maturity. Seeds very 
