Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

1. Nasturtium, R. Br

1. Nasturtium, R. Br.

Glabrous or pubescent branched herbs. Leaves generally pinnate or pinnately lobed, sometimes entire. Flowers small, yellow or white. Sepals short, equal, spreading. Petals short, scarcely clawed. Stamens 2, 4, or 6. Stigma entire or 2-lobed. Pod almost terete, long or short; valves generally 1-nerved; septum thin, transparent. Seeds small, turgid, usually arranged in two rows; cotyledons accumbent.

A genus of between 20 and 30 species, some of them very widely dispersed, but most abundant in the temperate and warm regions of the Northern Hemisphere.

1. N. palustre, D.C. Syst. ii. 191.—A slender leafy branched herb with weak or decumbent stems 6–20 in. long, glabrous or slightly hairy. Leaves variable, usually lyrately pinnatifid, auricled at the base with the lobes toothed or irregularly lobed, sometimes almost entire, toothed or sinuate-lobed. Flowers small, yellow, in lax racemes. Pedicels slender, ebracteate. Petals about equalling the sepals. Pods oblong, turgid, slightly curved when ripe, ⅙–¼ in. long. Seeds numerous, crowded, in 2 series.— Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 10; Kirk, Students' Fl. 25. N. terrestre, R. Br. in Ait. Hort. Kew. iv. 110; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 14. 1ST. N. semipinnati-fidum, Hook. Journ. Bot. i. 246. N. sylvestre, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 309, (non R. Br.); A. Cunn. Precur. n. 625; Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 47. North and South Islands: Common in moist places from the North Cape to the Bluff. Usually in lowland districts, but ascending to over 2000 ft. in the river-valleys of Canterbury and Otago. Summer and autumn. An abundant plant in the temperate portions of both hemispheres. The common water-cress of Europe ( Nasturtium officinale, R. Br.) is now plentifully naturalised throughout New Zealand. It is easily known by its aquatic habit, creeping or floating stem, pinnate leaves, and white flowers.