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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.
3. Mazus, Lour
3. Mazus, Lour.
Small herbs, often prostrate and creeping. Lower leaves opposite or rosulate, upper ones when present often alternate. Flowers in terminal subsecund racemes or solitary. Calyx cam-panulate, 5-partite, not angled. Corolla-tube short; upper lip erect, 2-fid; lower larger, spreading, 3-fid; throat with 2 protuberances. Stamens 4, didynamous; anther-cells divergent, often confluent at the tip. Style slender; stigma 2-lamellate. Capsule loculicidally dehiscent, valves entire. Seeds numerous, very minute, ovoid.
A small genus of 6 or 7 species, extending northwards through Australia to the Malay Archipelago, India, and China. One of the New Zealand species is found in Australia and Tasmania, and is very closely allied to the Indian M. rugosus; the other is endemic.
Slender. Leaves ¾–3 in., linear-obovate or obovate-spathulate, membranous. Flowers small, about ⅓. long 1. M. pumilio. Stout. Leaves ½–2 in., obovate or oblong. Flowers large, ¾ in. long 2. M. radicans.
| 1. | M. pumilio, R. Br. Prodr. 439.—A small perennial herb with a creeping underground stem, putting up short leafy branches. Leaves close together, forming an erect tuft, variable in size, ¾–3 in. long including the petiole, obovate-spathulate, obtuse, gradually narrowed into the petiole, membranous, entire or irregularly sinuate-toothed, glabrous or sparingly pilose. Peduncles slender, usually exceeding the leaves, 1–6-flowered; pedicels long, each with a linear-setaceous bract. Calyx narrow-campanulate; lobes narrow, acute. Corolla ¼–½ in. long, white or blueish-white with a yellow centre; tube exceeding the calyx; lobes broad, rounded. Capsule included in the persistent calyx.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 567; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 189; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 202; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 484.
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North Island: Auckland—Ahipara, T. F. C.; Matapouri, Colenso! Lower Waikato, T. F. C., Petrie! Carse! Thames River, Adams; East Cape, Bishop Williams! Wellington—Manawatu River, Colenso! Otaki, Buchanan! Pencarrow Lagoon, Kirk! South Island: Canterbury—Banks Peninsula, Lyall; Canterbury Plains, Haast! Armstrong. November–February. |
| 2. | M. radicans, Cheesem.—Stems creeping and rooting at the joints, often subterranean, putting up short erect leafy branches 1–3 in. high. Leaves close together, spreading, petiolate, ¾–2 in. long including the petiole, obovate or linear-obovate, obtuse, gradually narrowed into the petiole, entire or very obscurely sinuate, pilose or almost glabrous. Peduncle terminal, 1–3-flowered, usually longer than the leaves; pedicels with 1 or 2 linear-subulate bracts. Flowers large, ½–¾ in. long, white with a yellow centre. Calyx campanulate, 5-cleft, not angled, pilose with jointed hairs. Corolla-tube much exceeding the calyx; upper lip erect; lower lip much larger, spreading. Capsule ⅓ in. long, ovoid, enclosed in the persistent calyx.—Mimulus radicans, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 188; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 202.
North Island: Wellington—Head of the Wairarapa Valley and Tararua Mountains, Colenso! Buchanan! South Island: Not uncommon throughout in wet places in mountain districts. 500–3500 ft. November–February. Imperfect specimens of this were described by Sir J. D. Hooker as a Mimulus. It has, however, the habit, inflorescence, and calyx of Mazus, and I have consequently transferred it to that genus. |