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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order XXIII. Rosaceæ.]

Herbs, shrubs, or trees. Leaves simple or compound, alternate or rarely opposite, stipulate. Flowers usually regular and hermaphrodite, sometimes unisexual. Calyx with the tube free or adnate to the ovary, limb 4–5-lobed, lobes imbricate or valvate. Petals 4–5, rarely wanting, free, inserted on the calyx at the base of the lobes, imbricate. Stamens many, rarely few, inserted on the calyx just within the petals; filaments subulate, often incurved in bud; anthers small, didymous. Ovary of 1 or more free or coherent 1-celled carpels, sometimes adnate to the calyx - tube; styles free or connate; ovules 1 or 2 to each carpel, anatropous. Fruit very various, superior, or more or less inferior and combined page 124with the calyx-tube, of one or many achenes, drupes, or follicles, or a pome, more rarely a berry or capsule. Seeds erect or pendulous, albumen generally wanting; embryo with large plano-convex cotyledons and a stout radicle.

A large order, found all over the world, but most abundant in the temperate and colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere; comparatively rare in the tropics and in the south temperate zone. Genera about 75; species from 1200 to 1500. It includes most of the important cultivated fruits of northern origin, as peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, &c; as well as the rose, with its numberless garden varieties. Of the 4 New Zealand genera, Acœna is mainly South American, but extends northwards to California and south-eastwards to Australia and New Zealand; the 3 others are widely spread in temperate regions. Many northern species, have established themselves in New Zealand, as will be seen on referring to. the list of introduced plants given in the appendix.

Scrambling or climbing shrubs with prickly stems. Fruit of many crowded succulent carpels 1. Rubus.
Herbs with pinnately lobed or divided leaves. Styles elongating after flowering. Fruit-carpels numerous, dry 2. Geum.
Herbs with pinnate leaves. Styles not elongating after flowering. Fruit-carpels numerous, dry 3. Potentilla.
Herbs with, pinnate leaves. Fruiting-calyx usually with stiff bristles, often barbed at the top. Carpels 1, rarely 2 4. Acæna