linear, acute, concave, minutely serrulate, coriaceous. Peduncles axillary, solitary, very short in the flowering stage, but lengthening in fruit and overtopping the leaves. Flowers minute, in pairs or more rarely solitary at the top of the peduncle, sessile within 4 minute concave bracts placed crosswise. Perianth 4-lobed. Stamen 1, inserted on an annular membrane near the mouth of the perianth. Fruiting perianth about 112 in. long, hard, ovoid at the base; lobes erect. Utricle membranous, included.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 234; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 259. Mniarum biflorum, Forst. Char. Gen. 2, t. 1; Prodr. n. 6; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 319; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 368; Raoul, Choix, 43. M. fasciculatum, Raoul, l.c. (not of B. Br.). Ditoca muscosa, Banks ex Gaertn. Fruct. ii. 196, t. 126.
North and South Islands: Abundant throughout, from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape to Foveaux Strait. Sea-level to 4000 ft.
Order LXIII. AMARANTACEÆ.
Herbs, rarely shrubs. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple and entire, exstipulate. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, usually regular, generally arranged in spikes or cymes or clusters, each flower seated within 2 scarious bracteoles and subtended by a larger scarious bract. Perianth inferior, persistent, rigid and scarious, often coloured, of 4–5 free or slightly connate segments, imbricate in bud. Stamens hypogynous, 4–5, seldom fewer, opposite to the sepals; filaments free or connate, or united with intervening staminodia into a cup-shaped ring; anthers 1- or 2-celled. Ovary superior, 1-celled; style long or short, simple or divided into 2–3 branches or separate styles; ovules 1 or more, attached to a slender basal funicle. Fruit usually a membranous utricle, rarely a capsule or berry, enclosed or resting upon the persistent perianth. Seeds 1 or more, usually compressed, vertical; albumen farinaceous; embryo annular or curved.
A moderate order, coruprisiug 48 genera and nearly 500 species, most plentiful in tropical or warm countries, absent in cold climates or on the tops of high mountains. Some species of Amarantus and Celosia (cockscomb) are often cultivated in gardens, but as a whole the order is composed of weedy unattractive plants possessing no useful properties. The only New Zealand genus is found in all warm countries.
1. ALTERNANTHERA, Forsk.
Annual or perennial herbs, usually prostrate or decumbent, rarely erect, glabrous or more or less pubescent or tomentose. Leaves opposite. Flowers small, whitish, capitate; heads sessile in the axils of the leaves, often clustered. Perianth 5-partite; segments unequal, the anterior and 2 posterior flattened, the 2 lateral innermost, concave. Stamens 2–5; filaments short, connate at the
