1. Rhagodia, R. Br.

Shrubs or more rarely herbs. Leaves alternate or subopposite, sessile or petiolate. Flowers small, hermaphrodite or monœcious, rarely diœcious, sessile or very shortly pedicelled, in axillary clusters or in terminal spikes or panicles; bracts wanting. Perianth 5-lobed or -partite; segments obtuse, concave, hardly enlarged in fruit. Stamens 5 or fewer, inserted at the base of the perianth; filaments subulate, flattened. Ovary subglobose; styles 2 or very rarely 3, linear or subulate. Fruit a small globose or depressed-globose berry, free from the perianth. Seed horizontal, flattened; testa crustaceous; embryo annular, surrounding the copious mealy albumen.

A small genus of 11 species, all Australian, but one of them found in New Zealand as well.

• 1. R. nutans, R. Br. Prodr. 408.'—A much-branched prostrate or procumbent herb, green or the young leaves and branches more or less clothed with white mealy tomentum; stems 9–24 in. long, usually hard and woody at the base. Leaves opposite and alternate, petiolate, ¼–1 in. long, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate or hastate, acute, cuneate or truncate or cordate at the base, entire, rather thin. Flowers minute, polygamous or diœcious, arranged in short loose-flowered spikes or panicles in the upper axils or terminating the branches. Perianth-segments ovate, obtuse, mealy-tomentose. Male flowers usually with 3 stamens; female flowers with 1 or 2 abortive stamens. Ovary depressed-globose; styles 2. Fruit globose, fleshy, bright-red, ⅛ in. diam.—Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 156; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 408.

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  Kermadec Islands, North Island: Rocky places near the sea, not un—common, Also plentiful in east Australia, from Queensland southwards.

  Closely resembles Chenopodium triandrum in habit and foliage, and is easily mistaken for it in the absence of fruit. It probably occurs in the South Island, but I have seen no specimens from thence.