North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Muddy places and margins of still waters, not uncommon.
The New Zealand plant, which is also found in Australia, differs from the typical form of the species, which is North American, in the flowers being, always trimerous, while in America they are usually dimerous.
Order IX. HYPERICINEÆ.
Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees. Leaves opposite or occasionally whorled, generally furnished with pellucid glands or dark glandular dots, simple, entire or with glandular teeth; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, solitary or in cymes, terminal or rarely axillary. Sepals 5, rarely 4, imbricate. Petals the same number, hypogynous, imbricate and usually contorted. Stamens numerous, rarely few, hypogynous, usually united into 3 or 5 bundles. Ovary either 1-celled with 3–5 parietal placentas, or 3–5-celled from the union of the placentas in the axis; styles 3–5; ovules few or many, anatropous. Fruit capsular, rarely succulent. Seeds without albumen; embryo straight or curved radicle next the hilum.
A rather small but widely dispersed order, comprising 8 or 9 genera and about 220 species. Most of the species secrete an abundant resinous juice. The single New Zealand genus is widely spread in both temperate and tropical regions.
1. HYPERICUM, Linn.
Herbs or shrubs. Leaves opposite or rarely whorled, thin, usually sessile, entire or rarely minutely toothed. Flowers generally yellow, solitary or cymose, terminal or axillary. Sepals 5. Petals 5, smooth within. Ovary either 1-celled with 3–5 parietal placentas, or 3–5-celled through the placentas meeting in the axis; styles distinct or united at the base; ovules usually numerous. Capsule septicidal or dehiscing at the placentas. Seeds not winged.
A rather large genus comprising over 160 species, widely dispersed, but particularly abundant in south Europe, western Asia, and North America.
| Erect or nearly so. Leaves subcordate at the base, with revolute margins | 1. H. gramineum. |
| Procumbent. Leaves oblong or obovate, margins flat | 2. H. japonicum. |
1. H. gramineum, Forst. Prodr. n. 281.—A perfectly glabrous strict and wiry perennial 4–12 in. high or more. Stems branched from the base, erect or ascending, 4-angled, sparingly leafy. Leaves ⅓–¾ in. long, rarely more, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, cordate at the base and stem-clasping, obtuse, quite entire, marked with numerous pellucid dots; margins more or less revolute. Flowers ⅓–½ in. diam., sometimes solitary in small specimens, but usually in terminal trichotomous cymes, with a pair of bracts at the base of each fork; pedicels strict, erect. Sepals oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse. Petals longer than the sepals, golden-yellow. Capsule ovoid, acute, 1-celled, 3-valved, usually longer than the sepals.—
