3. CASSYTHA, Linn.
Leafless twining parasites, attaching themselves to living shrubs or trees by means of small suckers; stems terete, wiry or filiform. Leaves replaced by minute scales. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, in spikes or heads or racemes, each flower 3-bracteolate. Perianthtube turbinate or ovoid; segments of the limb 6, the 3 outer much smaller. Perfect stamens usually 9 in 3 series; the two outer series either all perfect or rarely the second series reduced to staminodia; anthers introrse; filaments eglandular; the third series all perfect with extrorse anthers, the filaments 2-glandular at the base; an inner fourth series of 3 staminodia present. Ovary almost free from the perianth at the time of flowering; stigma small. Fruit altogether enclosed in the enlarged, and succulent perianth-tube, crowned by the persistent limb. Seed with a membranous testa. Embryo with thick fleshy cotyledons, which are distinct in the young state, but confluent when mature.
A very remarkable genus of parasitic plants with the habit of Cuscuta. Species about 15, 1 of which is very widely distributed, 1 or 2 are found in South Africa, and 1 in Borneo; the remainder are all Australian, 1 of them being the same as the New Zealand species.
1. C. paniculata, R. Br. Prodr. 404.—Stems pale yellow-green, much branched, several feet in length, covering small shrubs with dense interwoven masses; branches 110 in. diam., glabrous or minutely silky at the very tips; scales mmute, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, membranous. Spikes numerous, often branched, ½–2 in. long. Flowers minute, distant, sessile, about 110 in. diam. Perianth glabrous; the 3 outer segments very small; the inner obtuse. Stamens 9, all perfect. Ovary glabrous. Fruit globose, about the size of a pea, enclosed in the enlarged and succulent perianth-tube, obscurely 6-ribbed or quite smooth.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 218; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 239; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 311.
North Island: Extreme northern peninsula, from the North Cape to Ahipara and Mongonui, abundant. December–March.
Order LXX. PROTEACEÆ.
Shrubs or trees, rarely herbs. Leaves usually alternate, very rarely opposite or whorled, generally hard and coriaceous, entire or toothed or variously divided; stipules wanting. Flowers usually hermaphrodite, inflorescence various. Perianth inferior, regular or irregular; segments 4, valvate, at first cohering into a cylindric tube, at length separating and becoming revolute. Stamens 4, inserted on the perianth-segments and opposite to them; filaments short; anthers erect, adnate, 2-celled, introrse. Hypogynous glands 4, alternating with the stamens. Ovary superior, 1-celled, often oblique; style terminal, variously thickened and enlarged at
