1. E. glauca, Forst. Prodr. 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, campanulate, ¼ 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. 352; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 339; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 227; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 248.
North and South Islands: Common along the shores from the North Cape to the south of Otago. Waiuatua. October–February. Also found in Norfolk Island.
2. PORANTHERA, Rudge.
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, monœcious or diœcious. Male flowers: Calyx deeply divided into 5 segments imbricate 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 | 1. P. microphylla. |
| Compactly branched. Leaves with the margins revolute to the middle. Flowers solitary in the upper axils | 2. P. alpina. |
1. P. microphylla, Brong. in Dup. Voy. Coq. Bot. 218, t. 50b.—A slender perfectly glabrous herb; branches diffuse, 6–9 in. long, prostrate at the base, ascending at the tips. Leaves opposite or alternate, ¼–½ in. long, linear-obovate or spathulate, obtuse, gradually narrowed into a rather long petiole; margins flat or very slightly recurved. Flowers minute, greenish-white, in terminal bracteate racemes; bracts linear-subulate, lower ones exceeding the flowers. Petals linear, usually present in both sexes. Capsule membranous, depressed. Seeds small, brown, granulate.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 56; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xi. (1879) 432.
