Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
Order IV. Violarieæ
Order IV. Violarieæ.
Herbs, shrubs, or small trees. Leaves usually alternate, simple, entire lobed or cut, stipulate. Flowers regular or irregular, axillary, solitary or arranged in cymes or panicles, rarely racemose. Sepals 5, equal or unequal, imbricate. Petals 5, hypogynous, equal or unequal, lower one sometimes spurred, usually imbricate. Stamens 5, hypogynous; filaments short, broad; anthers erect, free or connate round the pistil; connective broad, usually produced beyond the cells into an appendage. Ovary free, 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas; ovules many or few to each placenta. Fruit either a 3–5-valved capsule or a berry. Seeds usually small; embryo straight, in the axis of fleshy albumen.
An order scattered over the whole world, containing 22 genera and about 250 species. The roots of many of the species are emetic, and are used as a substitute for ipecacuanha. One of the New Zealand genera is found in most countries; the other two have a very limited distribution outside the colony.
Herbs. Flowers irregular, the lower petal produced into a spur. Fruit a capsule 1. Viola. Trees or shrubs. Flowers regular. Fruit a berry. Anthers free 2. Melicytus. Anthers coherent 3. Hymenanthera.
1. Viola, Linn.
Annual or perennial herbs of small size. Leaves tufted at the top of a short woody rootstock or alternate on creeping or trailing stems, stipulate.- Flowers irregular, on radical or axillary 1-fiowered peduncles. Sepals 5, slightly produced at the base. Petals 5, spreading, the lowest usually longer and spurred at the base. Anthers 5, nearly sessile, the connectives flat, produced into a thin membrane beyond the cells, the two lower often spurred at the base. Style swollen above, straight or oblique at the tip. Capsule 3-valved; valves elastic, each with a single parietal placenta. Seeds ovoid or globose.
A large genus, widely diffused in all temperate climates, the species probably numbering considerably over 100. Two of the New Zealand species are endemic, the third extends to Tasmania.
In most of the species of the genus the flowers are dimorphic; some, which are usually produced early in the flowering season, having conspicuous flowers with large petals, as a rule ripening few seeds; others, which appear in late summer or autumn, being much smaller, with either minute petals or none at all, but which ripen abundance of seed. These are usually called cleistogamic flowers.
Stems slender, elongated. Leaves cordate. Stipules and bracts lacerate 1. V. filicaulis. Stems slender. Leaves cordate. Stipules and bracts entire 2. V. Lyallii. Stems short. Leaves ovate. Stipules and bracts entire 3. V. Cunninghamii.
2. Melicytus, Forst.
Trees or shrubs. Leaves petiolate, alternate, toothed or serrate; stipules minute. Flowers small, regular, diæcious, in little fascicles on the branches or axillary. Sepals 5, united at the base. Petals 5, short, spreading. Anthers 5, free, sessile; connective produced above into a broad membrane furnished with a scale at the back. Ovary 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas. Style 3–6-fid at the apex, or stigma nearly sessile, lobed. Fruit a berry, with few or several angled seeds.
A small genus, limited to the four New Zealand species, one of which is also found in Norfolk Island and the Tongan Islands.
Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, serrate 1. M. ramiflorus. Leaves large, obovate, coriaceous, sinuate-serrate 2. M. macrophyllus. Leaves long, linear-lanceolate, sharply and finely serrate 3. M. lanceolatus. Leaves small, orbicular-ovate, sinuate-toothed 4. M. micranthus.
3. Hymenanthera, R. Br.
Rigid woody shrubs. Leaves alternate or fascicled, entire or 'toothed; stipules minute, fugacious. Flowers small, regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, solitary or fascicled, axillary or on the naked branches below the leaves. Sepals 5, obtuse, united at the base. Petals 5, rounded at the tip. Anthers 5, sessile, connate into a tube surrounding the pistil; connectives terminating in a toothed or fimbriate process, and furnished with an erect scale at the back. Style short; stigma 2-fid, rarely 3–4-fid. Fruit a small subglobose berry; seeds usually 2, rarely 3–4.
A small genus of about half a dozen species, found in New Zealand, Australia and Tasmania, and Norfolk Island. The New Zealand species are exceedingly difficult of discrimination. They vary greatly in the leaves and vegetative characters generally; and the flowers and fruit, so far as they are known, are very similar in all. Most of them occur in localities which are not easily reached, making it difficult to secure specimens in a proper state for comparison.
Much - branched rigid maritime shrub. Leaves small, linear-spathulate or linear-obovate,⅓ 1 in. long 1. H. crassifolia. Shrub, often leafless. Branches flexuous or zigzag, interlaced. Leaves linear or linear-cuneate, ¼–¾ in. long 2. H. dentata, var. angustifolia. Slender glabrous shrub. Leaves oblong-obovate, ¾–2 in. long, quite entire. Flowers solitary or geminate 3. H. obovata. Stout spreading shrub. Leaves large, 1½–4 in., ovate-oblong to obovate, sinuate-toothed. Flowers numerous. Berry 2-seeded 4. H. latifolia. Tall erect shrub. Leaves large, 3–5 in., lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, serrate. Flowers numerous. Berry 4-seeded 5. H. chathamica.