Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
Order VI. Caryophylleæ
Order VI. Caryophylleæ.
Herbs, very rarely woody at the base; branches usually swollen at the nodes. Leaves opposite, quite entire or minutely serrulate, often united at the base; stipules scarious or wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals 4–5, free or cohering into a tubular calyx, imbricate. Petals 4–5 or occasionally absent, hypogynous or rarely perigynous, entire or lobed. Stamens 8–10, rarely fewer, inserted with the petals. Ovary free, 1-celled or imperfectly 3–5-celled at the base; styles 2–5, free or more or less connate into a single style; ovules 2 to many, attached to a free central or basal placenta. Fruit usually capsular, splitting into as many or twice as many valves as styles, very rarely indehiscent. Seeds few or many; albumen farinaceous, usually more or less surrounded by the narrow curved embryo.
A large and very natural order, found in every part of the world, but most abundant in temperate regions, particularly of the Northern Hemisphere; rare in the tropics, unless on high mountains. Genera about 38; species 1000 or more. The order contains some handsome garden plants, as the various kinds of carnations and pinks, but as a whole the species are insignificant, possessing no important properties or uses. Of the 4 genera indigenous in New Zealand, Colobanthus is confined to the south temperate zone; the remaining 3 occur in both hemispheres. More than 20 naturalised species have become well established, all of them of northern origin.
Sepals united into a tubular calyx (Sileneæ).
Calyx broadly 5-nerved. Styles 2. Capsule deeply 4-valved 1. Gypsophila. Sepals free (Alsineæ).
Petals 2-fid. Styles 3–5. Capsule globular or ovoid, opening with as many valves as styles. No stipules 2. Stellaria. Petals wanting. Styles 4–5. Stamens equal in number to the sepals. No stipules 3. Colobanthus. Petals entire. Styles 3. Capsule 3-valved. Stipules scarious 4. Spergularia.
1. Gypsophila, Linn.
Annual or perennial herbs, often glaucous, sometimes glandular-pubescent or hispid. Flowers usually small, paniculate or solidary in the forks of the stem. Calyx campanulate or turbinate, 5-toothed or 5-lobed, with 5 broad green nerves separated by membranous interspaces. Petals 5, with a narrow claw; limb entire or notched. Stamens 10. Ovary 1-celled; styles 2; ovules many. Capsule-globose or ovoid, 4-valved to or below the middle. Seeds subreni-form, laterally attached, embryo curved round the albumen.
A genus of about 50 species, with the exception of the following one all limited to the Mediterranean region and extratropical Asia.
1. | G. tubulosa, Boiss. Diagn. Fl. Or. i. 11.—A dichotomously branched erect or spreading annual 2–6 in. high, glandular-pubescent in all its parts, often viscid; stems and branches slender, terete. Leaves linear-subulate, ⅙–½-in., rarely longer. Flowers solitary in the forks of the branches, sometimes appearing axillary from one branch only being developed; peduncles slender, ¼–½ in. long. Calyx tubular, with 5 short teeth. Petals red or whitish-red, linear-oblong, slightly exceeding the calyx. Capsule ovoid-oblong, longer than the calyx, 5-valved at the apex. Seeds black, transversely rugose and pitted.— Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 325; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 22; Benth. Fl. Austral. i. 155; Kirk, Students' Fl. 54. North Island: East Coast, from Ahuriri to Cape Palliser, Colenso! South Island: Nelson— Tarndale, Travers. Marlborough, Buchanan. Canterbury—Lake Forsyth, Lake Lyndon, Kirk! Rangitata Valley, Sinclair and Haast; Mackenzie Plains and Lake Tekapo, T. F. C.; Lake Ohau, Haast. Otago—Common in the interior, Sector and Buchanan, Petrie! Altitudinal range from sea-level to 3000 ft. November–January. Also widely diffused in Australia, but found elsewhere only in South Europe and Asia Minor, from whence it was originally described. Several botanists have suggested that it has been introduced both into Australia and New Zealand, but so far as the latter country is concerned no evidence has ever been obtained in support of such a view. |
2. Stellaria, Linn.
Annual or perennial herbs of very various habit, usually low-growing and diffuse, glabrous or pubescent. Flowers white, solitary or cymose, terminal or lateral. Sepals 5, rarely 4. Petals the same number, 2-cleft, rarely wanting. Stamens 10 or fewer by abortion, hypogynous. Ovary 1-celled; styles 3, or rarely 2, 4, or 5; ovules few or many. Capsule globose to oblong, few or many-seeded, dehiscing to below the middle into twice as many valves as. styles. Seeds granulate, tuberculate, or pitted.
A genus of about 75 species, dispersed over the whole world, but most abundant in cold and temperate regions. The 6 indigenous species are all endemic, but 3 others from the Northern Hemisphere have become naturalised. One of these, S. media, Linn., the common chickweed, is now so well established and has penetrated into such remote localities, (it has been gathered in Mac- quarie Island) that a beginner will be certain to consider it indigenous. It has flaccid procumbent much-branched stems 6 in. to 2 ft. long, marked by an alternate pubescent line; ovate acuminate leaves, the lower on long ciliate petioles; and flowers both axillary and in terminal cymes.
Creeping and matted. Leaves orbicular. Sepals subulate-lanceolate, acute 1. S. parviflora. Creeping and matted. Leaves orbicular, ovate, obovate, or lanceolate. Sepals oblong-ovate, obtuse 2. S. decipiens. Small. Leaves soft, ovate. Sepals oblong, obtuse 3. S. minuta. Creeping or suberect. Leaves linear-oblong. Flowers almost sessile. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, acuminate 4. S. elatinoides. Glaucous, erect, dichotomously branched. Leaves linear. Flowers large, green, ¾ in. 5. S. Roughii. Tufted, suberect, rigid and wiry. Leaves acerose, linear-subulate 6. S. gracilenta.
3. Colobanthus, Bartling.
Small densely tufted usually rigid glabrous herbs. Leaves opposite, narrow-linear or subulate, usually imbricate, rigid, cartilaginous, rarely fleshy. Flowers green, solitary, on short or long peduncles. Sepals 4–5, coriaceous, erect. Petals wanting. Stamens 4–5, alternating with the sepals, slightly perigynous. Capsule ovoid or oblong, opening by as many valves as sepals.
A small genus of about 15 species, most numerous in New Zealand, but found also on the mountains of South America, in Australia and Tasmania, and in the Antarctic islands. Of the 9 species found in New Zealand, all but 3 are endemic. The species are highly variable, and most of them extremely difficult of discrimination.
Colobanthus repens, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. 261, and C. cœspitosus, Col. l.c. xxvii. 384, are respectively Sagina procumbens, Linn., and S. apetala, Linn., as proved by the type specimens in Mr. Colenso's herbarium. It is curious that such an acute observer as Mr. Colenso should have overlooked that the stamens are opposite to the sepals in both these plants, and not alternate, as is the case in all true Colobanthi. Both the above species of Sagina are now copiously naturalised throughout the colony.
* Flowers tetramerous.
Soft, bright-green. Leaves 1/10–¼ in., linear, obtuse, almost fleshy. Sepals ovate-lanceolate, obtuse 1. C. muscoides. Branched, leafy. Leaves flaccid, ¼–⅔ in., acute or mucronate, but not acicular. Sepals ovate, obtuse 2. C. quitensis. ** Flowers pentamerous.
Leaves grassy, often flaccid, acicular. Sepals ovate, acute or acuminate, but slightly exceeding the capsule 3. C. Billardieri. Leaves rigid, usually spreading, acicular. Sepals acicular, much longer than the capsule 4. C. Muelleri. Leaves densely imbricate, small, 1/10–⅕ in., obtuse at the tip, with a short acicular point. Sepals about equal to the capsule 5. C. brevisepalus. Leaves densely imbricate, ⅙–¼ in., strict, narrowed into short acicular points. Sepals about equal to the capsule 6. C. Benthamianus. Leaves densely imbricate, ¼–¾ in., curved, narrowed into very long acicular points. Sepals much longer than the capsule 7. C. acicularis. Leaves loosely imbricate, ⅛–¼ in., spreading or recurved, chaffy, acute or shortly acicular. Sepals 5, ovate, acute, about equal to the capsule 8. C. canaliculatus. Leaves barely imbricate, loosely spreading, membranous, ¼–½ in. long. Peduncles axillary. Sepals linear-subulate, much longer than the capsule 9. C. Buchanani.
4. Spergularia, Pers.
Spreading or prostrate herbs. Leaves linear or setaceous, often with smaller ones fascicled in the axils so as to appear verticillate. Stipules small, scarious. Flowers white or pink, pedicelled, in subracemose cymes. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire, rarely wanting. Stamens 10 or fewer by abortion. Ovary 1-celled, many- [ unclear: oyuled]; styles 3. Capsules 3-valved; seeds compressed, often winged.
A genus of 5 or 6 species, widely spread in temperate or subtropical regions, chiefly near the sea-coast or in saline localities. The single New Zealand species has a very extensive range.
1. | S. media, Presl. Fl. Sic. 17.—A rather succulent much-branched prostrate or suberect herb, more or less viscid-pubescent; stems 2–6 in. long. Leaves narrow-linear, semi-terete, ⅓–1 in. long, fleshy, quite entire, acute; stipules broadly ovate, acuminate, conspicuous. Flowers many, axillary and terminal, on slender glandular peduncles ⅓–1 in. long. Sepals lanceolate, with a broad white membranous border. Petals usually shorter than the sepals. Capsule exceeding the sepals. Seeds more or less flattened, often surrounded by a broad membranous wing.— Kirk, Students' Fl. 63. S. rubra var. marina, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 25. Arenaria media, Linn. Sp. Plant. 606; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 609; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 26. North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Common on the coast, from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards. October–February. An abundant plant near the sea in many parts of the world. The allied species S. rubra, Presl., which has more slender and flatter leaves, smaller flowers, and seeds not so conspicuously margined, is naturalised in several places in both the North and South Islands, but is usually found in inland localities. |