34 FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND.
serrata, Forst. Prodr. DC. Prodr. A. Rich. Fl. Nov. Zeal, Elæocarpus dicera, Willd., Banks et Sol. Ic.
et MSS. Triphalia rubicunda, Sol, MSS.
H ab. Northern and Middle Islands, abundant, Forster, etc, Fl. October to January and February.
Nat. name, “ Mako-Mako," Cunn. (Cultivated in England.)
A handsome small tree, with large leaves, generally red or purplish beneath, and racemes of small rosy flowers.
Leaves variable in form, membranous, pubescent, as are the branchlets and panicles, becoming glabrous when old ;
3-5 inches long, ovate, cordate or oblong lanceolate, deeply and irregularly serrate, acuminate, on long petioles.
Panicles, (though called racemosa, the inflorescence is uot a simple raceme) half as long as the leaves, from whose
axils they arise. Peduncles pedicels slender. Mowers small, 3-4 lines across ; males largest. Petals rosy, three-
lobed; those of the female flowers very small. Stamens mmy, bright yellow, covered with microscopic hairs;
anthers longer than the filaments. Ovary usually four-celled. Bet-ry as large as a pea, eaten by the natives, acid.
2. Aristotelia/niiieom, Hook, fil.; fruticulus decumbens v. erectus, rigidus, ramulis petiolisque
puberulis divaricatis v. suberectis, foliis glaberrimis parvis coriaceis breve petiolatis obovatis ovatis oblongisve
obtusis crenatis v. serratis snbter venosis, floribus 4-meris dioicis axillaribus, pedunculis 1 - 3-floris
basi bracteolatis, sepalis ovatis obtusis, petalis calyce æquilongis obovatis integris v. obscure lobatis inil. foem.
abbreviatis, staminibus 4 -6 , filamentis brevibus, antheris pubescentibus, ovario 2-4-loculari, bacca globosa
4-6-sperma, testa ossea.
Var. a. suberecta; foliis 1 unc. longis coriaceis crenatis.
Var. erecta; foliis 1-14 vine, longis dentatis v. serratis minus coriaceis.
Var. 'y. prostrata; foliis parvis i - l unc. longis oblongis coriaceis.
Var. 8. microphylla; suberecta, ramis divaricatis virgatis laxe foliosis, foliis parvis coriaceis obovato-
spathulatis obtusis, baccis parvis.
H ab. Northern and Middle Islands. Var. a and /3. East Coast; Ruahine range, at a considerable
elevation, Colenso. Var. 7 . Milford Sound, Lyall ; Nelson, Bidwill. Var. B. Base of Tongariro, and at
Tarawera, 1"
A very variable plant, growing freely as a bush, 4-6 feet high, in damp woods, becoming small and prostrate
in more alpine and exposed localities, and more rigid and straggling on a drier soil lower down. Some of Mr.
Colenso’s specimens of var. ^ have the leaves more membranous, shai*ply serrate, and occasionally very irregularly
lobed, resembling those of a starved plant of A. racemosa. The flowers and fmit are, however, the same in all these
localities, varying but little in size, and not at all in structure.—Stems and branches woody, covered with red-brown
bark; upper and petioles pubescent. Leaves on short petioles, generally veiy coriaceous, 3 lines to 1 inch long,
ovate, obovate, or linear-oblong, blunt, crenate, or serrate. Flowers veiy minute, red, solitary, on short simple
peduncles, almost buried in sheathing coriaceous bracts, rarely two or three together, and forming a raceme.
Berries red, fleshy, 1-3 lines across, four-celled, three- to five-seeded. Seeds with a bony more or less tuberculated
testa, covered with a fleshy cellular coat, which is not separable, and in which the nutrient vessels of the growing
seed partly ramify.—Two species are perhaps confounded imder A.J
N at. O rd . XIII. OLACINEÆ, Mirò.
Gen. I. PENNANTIA, Forst.
-F/om dioici. obsoletus. Petala h, E l. B 5, petalis alterna ; filamentis g ra cilibus
; antheris longe exsertis; pollen sphæricum, 3-lineatum; rudimentum ovarii minimum conicum.
F l . ? Stamina abbreviata, inclusa. Ovarmm liueari-oblongum, obtuse trigoiium, stigmate sessili 3-lobo
coronatum; ovulum 1 e apice column® basilaris ovarii parieti adiiat® pendulum, umbilico brevi incrassato.
ovoidea, carnosa, stigmate persistente trígono coronata; putamine trígono crustáceo superne infra
apicem perforato. Semen pendulum; testa tenuissima, chalaza et raphe instructa; albumine carnoso; embryone
parvo recto, axili; radicula anguste clavata, supera; cotyledonibus parvis, plaiio-convexis. Forst.
Gen. 67. Frodr.p. 379.
Small trees, branching freely from below, 40 feet high, with whitish bark and brittle wood; young branches
and racemes pubescent. Leaves alternate, on short petioles, 1-3 inches long, rather membranous, ovate, obovate,
or oblong, blunt, sinuate-repand or toothed, rarely entire, turning blackish in drying. Flowers white, fragrant, in
terminal panicles, of whicli the males are the largest. Calyx a very minute cup, obscurely five-toothed, jointed on
the top of the pedicel. Petals valvate, linear-oblong, 1-2 lines long; males largest, reflexed. Stamens alternate
with the petals; those of the male flowers with flexuose filaments, longer than the petals; anthers linear-oblong,
orange; those of the female shorter, without pollen. Ovarium, in the male flower reduced to a conical central
tubercle; in the female, linear-oblong, bluntly three-angled, crowned with three diverging sessile stigmata, one-
celled, with one pendulous ovule at the top of the cell, hanging from a short swollen funiculus. Berries oval, black,
shining, fleshy, with a dark purple juice, about 4 inch long, enclosing a trigonous hard nut, with three flat faces; a
flat cord runs up one of the outer faces of this nut, and passes through a small round hole just below the apex;
by this cord the seed is suspended. Seed filling the cavity of the n u t; albumen firm aud fleshy, oily; embryo small,
axile at the upper end of the seed.—Only three species of this curious genus are known,—the present, one from
Norfolk Island, and one from the West Coast of Australia; it is allied to Icacina. (Name in honour of Thomas
Pennant, an eminent Scottish naturalist.)
1. Pennantia corymbosa, Forst. Prodr. A. Rich. Fl. Nov. Zeal. A. Cunn. Prodr. P. odorata,
Raoul, Ann. Sc. Nat. Meristoides paniculata, Banks et Sol. Ic. et MSS. T a b . X II.
H a b . Northern and Middle Islands; mountainous woods; east coast. Banks and Solander, Colenso,
etc. Akaroa, Raoul. Nelson, Bidwill. Nat. name, “ Ivaikomako," Colenso.
A very graceful flowering tree, 30-30 feet high, which may be recognized by the characters given under tbe
genus. The wood is considered the best for produciug fire by friction. The economy of the ovaiy and fruit is
extremely curious, as is often the case with Olacinece, and its nearly allied natui-al orders, Santalacece and Loranthacece,
etc. The fruit of many species of these presents very anomalous appearances, from such important changes taking
place in the youngest state of the ovarium, as obliteration of cavities and absorption of dissepiments, and even of
unimpregnated ovules. This occurs when these organs are still so rudimentary as only to be recognized by careful
examination of the ovai-y iu fresh specimens, and from their very earliest period of growth. The thi’ee stigmata
and trigonous fonn of the ovary indicate the germen to be composed of three carpellaiy leaves, and to have had three
ovules at some period: these ovules are in allied plants suspended from the top of an erect column, ai-ising from
the bottom of the ovary, or are pendulous from the top of the cell. I can nowhere trace such a column in the fleshy
ovary of Pennantia, wliich turns black when dry; but it is very evident in the fruit, as the cord passing up the outside
of the nut, fig. 13, ] 3, and 14 (a). The position of the two deficient ovules may possibly be recognized in
the ovary as the swelling of the umbilicus, fig. 5 and 7 (a). The development of a crustaceous nut round the seed,
between it and the cord, is not so readily accounted for, and 1 can only suggest its being owing to the inner walls
of the cavity of the ovarium gradually becoming thickened; and 1 oifer, in corroboration of this opinion, the struc-
tm-e of Marlea. In that genus the pendulous ovules are lodged in cavities of tbe fleshy ovary, which thus presents
as many cells as ovules, the cells communicating over the top of the erect column from which the ovules are
suspended. These cells harden round the ripening seeds, and a beny (with three nuts or a three-celled nut) is
the result, each nut perforated at its upper inner angle, opposite the position of the apex of the column. It is not
surprising that the central column of Pennantia should, in its mdimentaiy state, be included iu the wall of the
ovarium, nor that two cells should be absorbed, nor that two ovules sliould be wanting; but it is curious (though