tips. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; ovules numerous, attached to broad peltate placentas; style long; stigma 2-lobed, lobes large, oblong, spreading. Berry globose, thinly fleshy, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, subglobose, tuberculate.
A genus of a single spscies, endemic in the northern portion of the North Island. It is very closely allied to Pratia, differing chiefly in the tall erect habit, in the racemose inflorescence, and in the large stigmatic lobes.
1. C. physaloides, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 157.—Stem flexuose, smooth, sparingly branched, 1–4 ft. high. Leaves on slender petioles 2–5 in. long; blade 3–7 in. long, ovate, acute, unequally doubly serrate, thin and membranous, conspicuously veined, glabrous or with a few sparse soft hairs. Racemes terminal, 5–15-flowered, shorter than the leaves; pedicels slender, bracteolate at the base. Corolla 1½–2 in. long, pale-blue, pubescent. Berry ½ in. diam., bluish, coriaceous.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 170; Bot. Mag. t. 6864. Lobelia physaloides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 425; Raoul, Choix, 45; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 555, 556.
North Island: From the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards to the Bay of Islands, not common, A. Cunningham, Colenso! &c.; Sail Rock (off Whangarei Harbour), Miss Shakespear! Oru. December–March.
2. PRATIA, Gaud.
Slender prostrate or creeping herbs, rarely ascending or erect, Leaves alternate, toothed. Peduncles axillary, 1-flowered. Flowers rather small, often unisexual. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, limb 5-partite. Corolla oblique, spllt to the base at the back, 2-lipped; upper lip 2-partite, lower lip 3-lobed, spreading. Staminal tube free from the corolla or nearly so; anthers cohering, 2 lower tipped with short bristles, 3 upper naked. Ovary 2-celled; ovules numerous; stigma 2-lobed or emarginate. Berry globose or obovoid, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, indehiscent. Seeds numerous, minute.
A small genus of 16 or 18 species, having its headquarters in Australia, but extending northwards to the Himalaya Mountains and eastwards to New Zealand and temperate South America. It only differs from Lobelia in the indehiscent more or less succulent fruit.
| Stems usually long. Leaves ⅕–½ in., orbicular or obovate, obtusely toothed | 1. P. angulata. |
| Stems short, densely matted. Leaves 112–110 oblong, deeply toothed | 2. P. perpusilla. |
| Stems stout, matted. Leaves ⅕–⅓ in., coarsely sharply toothed, coriaceous. Corolla-tube cylindrical, swollen below | 3. P. macrodon. |
1. P. angulata, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 43.—A very variable slender creeping or prostrate much-branched perennial herb, glabrous or rarely slightly pubescent; stems 2–12 in. long, branches often ascending at the tips. Leaves shortly petiolate, ⅙–½ in. long
