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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

4. Spergularia, Pers

4. Spergularia, Pers.

Spreading or prostrate herbs. Leaves linear or setaceous, often with smaller ones fascicled in the axils so as to appear verticillate. Stipules small, scarious. Flowers white or pink, pedicelled, in subracemose cymes. Sepals 5. Petals 5, entire, rarely wanting. Stamens 10 or fewer by abortion. Ovary 1-celled, many-[unclear: oyuled]; styles 3. Capsules 3-valved; seeds compressed, often winged.

A genus of 5 or 6 species, widely spread in temperate or subtropical regions, chiefly near the sea-coast or in saline localities. The single New Zealand species has a very extensive range.

1.S. media, Presl. Fl. Sic. 17.—A rather succulent much-branched prostrate or suberect herb, more or less viscid-pubescent; stems 2–6 in. long. Leaves narrow-linear, semi-terete, ⅓–1 in. long, fleshy, quite entire, acute; stipules broadly ovate, acuminate, conspicuous. Flowers many, axillary and terminal, on slender glandular peduncles ⅓–1 in. long. Sepals lanceolate, with a broad white membranous border. Petals usually shorter than the sepals. Capsule exceeding the sepals. Seeds more or less flattened, often surrounded by a broad membranous wing.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 63. S. rubra var. marina, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 25. Arenaria media, Linn. Sp. Plant. 606; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 609; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 26.

North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Common on the coast, from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards. October–February. An abundant plant near the sea in many parts of the world.

The allied species S. rubra, Presl., which has more slender and flatter leaves, smaller flowers, and seeds not so conspicuously margined, is naturalised in several places in both the North and South Islands, but is usually found in inland localities.