Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Goodenovieæ
Order XL. GOODENOVIEÆ.
Herbs or shrubs. Leaves alternate or radical, rarely opposite; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, irregular or rarely regular, axillary or terminal, solitary or in spikes or racemes or panicles. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary, limb of 5 persistent lobes or obsolete. Corolla gamopetalous, usually irregular, 5-lobed, often split to the base at the back. Stamens 5, alternate with the lobes of the corolla and inserted at its base; anthers free or rarely connate into a ring surrounding the style. Ovary inferior or nearly so, 1–2-celled; style simple, with a cup-shaped or 2-lipped expansion which encloses the stigma, and is called the indusium; ovules 1 or 2 or more in each cell, erect or ascending. Fruit an indehisfent drupe or nut or a 2–4-valved capsule. Seeds albuminous; embryo axile, radicle next the hilum.
An order containing 12 genera and about 200 species, nearly the whole of which are confined to Australia, a few species of Scævola extending to the Pacific islands and the coasts of tropical Asia and Africa, and one species of Selliera to South America. The order has no important properties.
| Creeping fleshy herb. Leaves linear-spathulate, entire. Berry many-seeded | 1. Selliera. |
| The New Zealand species a diffuse or procumbent under-shrub. Drupe 2-celled, with one seed in each cell | 2. Scævola. |
1. SELLIERA, Cav.
Small glabrous creeping and rooting perennial herbs. Leaves alternate or fascicled at the nodes, entire. Flowers axillary, sessile or pedunculate. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb 5-lobed or -partite. Corolla oblique, split to the base at the back; limb of 5 nearly equal lobes, at length digitately spreading; the margins inflexed or winged. Stamens 5, epigynous; anthers free. Ovary inferior, more or less completely 2-celled; ovules numerous in each cell. Style undivided; stigma short, truncate, enclosed within the cup -shaped indusium. Fruit fleshy, indehiscent. Seeds usually numerous, compressed or irregularly shaped.
A small genus of two species, one of which is coafined to Western Australia; the other occurs in Australia, Tasmania, and Chili, as well as in New Zealand.
1. S. radicans, Cav. Ic. v. 49, t. 474.—A glabrous creeping and rooting perennial; stems 1–10 in. long, usually matted and interlaced, forrning broad fiat patches. Leaves variable in size, ½–4 in. long, linear-spathulate to oblong-spathulate or obovate-spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into a long petiole, quite entire, nerveless, very thick and fleshy. Peduncles axillary, 1- or rarely 2-flowered, shorter than the leaves, with 2 subulate bracts above the middle. Flowers white, ⅓ in. long. Calyx-lobes lanceolate or linear. Corolla-lobes ovate, acute, not winged. Fruit fleshy, ovoid or obovoid, about ¼ in. long. Seeds compressed, orbicular, narrowly winged.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 173; Fl. Tasm. i. 281; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 82. S. fasciculata, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iii. (1871) 211. S. microphylla, Col. l.c. xxii. (1890) 473. Goodenia repens, Labill. Pl. Nov. Holl. i. 53, t. 76; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 228; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 428; Raoul, Choix, 45; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 156.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Common in muddy or sandy or rocky places near the sea. Inland by the margins of the larger lakes, &c., ascending to over 2500 ft. at the base of Ruapehu. November–February.
For notes on the fertilisation, see a paper by myself in the Trans. N.Z. Inst. ix. p. 542.
2. SCÆVOLA, Linn.
Herbs, undershrubs, or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, entire or toothed. Flowers axillary, solitary or in small cymes. Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary; limb short, 5-partite or cupular, sometimes obsolete. Corolla oblique, split to the base at the back; lobes 5, nearly equal, at length digitately spreading. Stamens 5; anthers free. Ovary inferior or the summit free, 2-celled; ovules solitary in each cell, erect. Style undivided; stigma truncate or 2-lobed, enclosed in the cup-shaped indusium. Fruit indehiscent, exocarp succulent or thin and membranous, endocarp woody or bony or rarely crustaceous. Seeds solitary in each cell.
A large genus of 60 or 70 species, over 50 of which are confined to Australia. The remainder are scattered through the Pacific islands and along the coasts of tropical Asia, one extending to tropical Africa and the West Indies. The single species found in New Zealand is endemic.
1. S. gracilis, Hook. f. in Journ. Linn. Soc. i. (1857) 129.—A procumbent undershrub 2–4 ft. high; branches long, spreading, and with the leaves clothed with silky hairs; axils of the leaves densely villous. Leaves alternate, 1–3 in. long, obovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute, serrate-dentate, narrowed into a rather long petiole. Flowers ¾ in. long, axillary, solitary, sessile or shortly peduncled, white with a yellow eye, sweet-scented; bracts 2, rarely 4, linear-lanceolate. Calyx cupular. indistinctly lobed. Corolla with a short villous tube and 5 narrow segments, mucronate at the tips. Stamens equal, shorter than the corolla-tube. Style pilose; indusium deeply cup-shaped, margins fringed. Fruit not seen.— Handb. N.Z. Fl. 173.
Kermadec Islands: Abundant on clifis near the sea, McGillivray, Shakespear! T. F. C. July–December.
Hooker describes the calyx as having 3 subulate lobes and 2 shorter intermediate ones, but in my own specimens and Mr. Shakespear's it is invariably cupular and very indistinctly lobed.