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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

[Introduction to Order IX. HypericineÆ.]

Herbs or shrubs, rarely trees. Leaves opposite or occasionally whorled, generally furnished with pellucid glands or dark glandular dots, simple, entire or with glandular teeth; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, solitary or in cymes, terminal or rarely axillary. Sepals 5, rarely 4, imbricate. Petals the same number, hypogynous, imbricate and usually contorted. Stamens numerous, rarely few, hypogynous, usually united into 3 or 5 bundles. Ovary either 1-celled with 3–5 parietal placentas, or 3–5-celled from the union of the placentas in the axis; styles 3–5; ovules few or many, anatropous. Fruit capsular, rarely succulent. Seeds without albumen; embryo straight or curved, radicle next the hilum.

A rather small but widely dispersed order, comprising 8 or 9 genera and about 220 species. Most of the species secrete an abundant resinous juice. The single New Zealand genus is widely spread in both temperate and tropical regions.