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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
1. Sebæa, R. Br
1. Sebæa, R. Br.
Erect glabrous annual herbs. Leaves small, opposite, sessile. Flowers small, yellow, in terminal ciichotomous cymes. Calyx 4–5-partite; segments often keeled or winged. Corolla - tube cylindric; lobes 4–5, spreading, contorted in the bud. Stamens 4–5, affixed to the throat or tube of the corolla; filaments short; anthers oblong, introrse, straight or recurved at the tips. Ovary completely 2-celled, placentas large, adnate to the septum; style filiform; stigma clavate or capitate. Capsule globose or ovoid, septicidally 2-valved. Seeds numerous, minute; testa reticulated.
A genus comprising about 20 species, found in tropical and southern Africa, Madagascar, the Himalayas, Australia, and New Zealand. The single New Zealand species is also Australian.
| 1. | S. ovata, R. Br. Prodr. 452.—A simple or sparingly branched annual herb 4–8 in. high; stems 4-angled. Leaves few, in distant pairs, sessile, ¼–½ in. long, broadly ovate or orbicular-ovate, obtuse or subacute. Flowers small, ¼ in. long, pale-yellow, in a terminal dichotomous cyme, with a flower in each axil. Calyx-segments 5, ovate-lanceolate, acute, keeled. Corolla with a long straight tube and 5 short lobes which are twisted after flowering. Anthers linear-oblong, with a gland at the tip. Style short. Capsule oblong.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 179; Handb" N.Z. Fl. 191; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 371. S. gracilis, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 400; Raoul, Choix, 44.
North Island: Bogs at Mangamuka, Hokianga, R. Cunningham; Hawke's Bay, Colenso! Hamilton! Tryon! South Island: Canterbury—Near Christchurch, Armstrong; Port Cooper, Lyall; Lake Ellesmere and other localities on the Canterbury Plains, Kirk! Otago—Buchanan! Apparently a rare and local plant in New Zealand, but common in many parts of Australia. |