Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order VIII. ElatineÆ.]

Small herbs or undershrubs, usually growing in wet places. Leaves opposite, stipulate. Flowers minute, regular, hermaphrodite. Sepals and petals each 2–5, free, imbricate. Stamens equal in number to the petals or twice as many, hypogynous, free; anthers versatile. Ovary free, 2–5-celled; styles as many as the cells, free from the base; stigmas capitate; ovules many, attached to the inner angles of the cells, anatropous. Capsule septicidal, the valves falling away from the persistent axis and septa. Seeds straight or curved; albumen wanting, or nearly so; embryo terete, radicle next the hilum.

A small and unimportant order, spread over the whole world. Genera 2; species about 25.