Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
Order LXXXIX. CentrolepideÆ
Order LXXXIX. CentrolepideÆ.
Annual or perennial tufted often moss-like plants, of small size. Leaves linear or setaceous, either all radical or densely imbricated on the short stems and branches. Flowers very small, usually hermaphrodite, one or several within 1–3 bracts, forming little heads or spikelets terminating short scapes or peduncles. Bracteoles or glumes under each flower 1–3, hyaline, sometimes wanting. Perianth none. Stamens 1–2; filaments filiform; anthers versatile, 1-celled. Ovary either 1-celled, or with 2–3 collateral cells, or of 2 or more free or irregularly connate carpels superposed in 2 rows; ovules solitary and pendulous in each cell or carpel; styles as many as the cells or carpels: stigmas linear. Fruit small, dry, pericarp membranous, the cells or carpels opening extrorsely by a longitudinal slit. Seed pendulous or laterally affixed; albumen farinaceous; embryo minute.
A small and inconspicuous order, comprising 4 or 5 genera and about 30 species. With the exception of the New Zealand species, one found in China, and one in antarctic South America, the order is confined to Australia. It has no properties of importance.
Flowers crowded in a terminal head surrounded by several bracts. Stamens and 1-celled ovaries irregularly mixed, without inner bracts 1. Trithuria. Flowers within 2 alternate bracts, 1–5 within each bract. Stamen 1. Ovary of 3 or more carpels superposed in 2 rows (rarely reduced to 1) 2. Centrolepis. Flowers with 2–3 alternate bracts, 1–2 within each bract. Stamens 2. Ovary of 2 collateral cells or carpels 3. Gaimardia.
1. Trithurxa, Hook. f.
Minute tufted and stemless annual herbs. Leaves all radical, filiform. Scapes short, slender, terminating in several spreading bracts enclosing a head of minute flowers. Flowers numerous, densely crowded, each probably consisting of a single stamen and ovary, but the stamens and ovaries so closely placed as to appear irregularly mixed. Perianth wanting. Stamens with a filiform filament and oblong anther. Carpels 3-angled or compressed in the Australian species, not angled in the one found in New Zealand. Styles 2–3 or numerous. Fruiting carpels 2–3-angled in the Australian species, splitting from the base upwards into as many valves as angles.
The genus also includes 2 species found in Australia.
1. | T.(?) ineonspicua, Cheesem. n. sp.—A very minute' slender perfectly glabrous annual herb, forming dense moss-like tufts ½–1 in. high. Leaves numerous, all radical, linear-filiform, strict, erect terete, tapering gradually to an acute point. Scapes very short in the flowering stage, lengthening to one-half or three-quarters the length of the leaves when in fruit. Bracts 3–4, erect or erecto-patent, linear-lanceolate, acute, thin and membranous, 1/12–⅛ in. long. Stamens not seen. Ovaries 6–12 or more, densely crowded bright-red, stipitate, ovoid or oblong-ovoid, smooth, not angled nor compressed. Styles numerous, very delicate, forming a spreading brush at the tip of the ovary and much longer than it. Ripe fruit elliptic-ovoid, quite smooth, pale yellow-brown with a dark spot at each end. North Island: Auckland—Sandy shores of Lake Ngatu, near Ahipara, H. Carse and R. H. Matthews! A curious little plant, of which I only possess imperfect material. It differs in several respects from Trithuria, and may form the type of a new genus. All the flowers I have examined are without stamens, so that the stamens are either very fugitive, or the flowers are diœcious. |
2. Centrolepis, Labill.
Small tufted annual or perennial herbs. Leaves all radical or imbricating along the stems, linear or filiform. Scape slender, terminating in 2 floral bracts which are either subopposite or one a little above the other. Flowers hermaphrodite, sessile, from 1 to 5 within each bract; each flower with 1–3 hyaline scales, or rarely the scales altogether wanting. Stamen 1; filament very long, filiform; anther linear-oblong, 1-celled. Carpels from 3–8 (sometimes reduced to 1), connate and superposed in 2 rows; styles as many as the carpels, filiform, free or connate at the base. Fruiting carpels with a membranous pericarp, longitudinally dehiscent.
A small genus of about. 20 species, all natives of Australia except 3 of those-described herein, and one found in Cambodia.
Slender, annual, not pulvinate. Leaves scapes and bracts hispid. Flowers 3–8 within each bract 1. C. strigosa. Perennial, densely pulvinate. Stems very short, ¼–½ in. Flowers 1 to each bract; carpels 3–5 to each flower 2. C. minima. Perennial, densely pulvinate. Stems soft, ½–1 in., glabrous. Flowers 1 to each bract; carpels 1–3 to each flower 3. C. pallida. Perennial, densely pulvinate. Stems soft, ½–2 in.; sheaths densely hairy. Flowers 1 or rarely 2 to each bract; carpels seldom more than 1 4. C. viridis.
3. Gaimardia, Gaud.
Small densely tufted perennial herbs; stems much branched, leafy throughout. Leaves numerous, densely imbricated, linear or setaceous. Scape terminal. Floral bracts 2 or 3, when 3 the upper-one usually empty. Flowers 1 to each bract, sessile or stipitate. Stamens 2; filaments filiform; anthers linear-oblong. Ovary 2- or rarely 3-celled; the cells (or carpels) collateral, connate; styles the same number as the carpels, long, filiform. Fruiting carpels 2, or 1 by abortion.
A small genus of 2 or 3 species, found in antarctic South America, New Zealand, and Tasmania.