'V ib
46 FLORA OP NEW ZEALAND. [M a nm e a .
Stamens opposite the petals. (Name from na>ga, a covering, aud Seppty, the skin, because the ripe capsules are loosely
invested by the cal}^.)
1. Pomaderris elliptica, Lab.; tota ciuereo-velutiua, foliis petiolatis ellipticis utrinque obtusis v.
apice subacutis superne glabris subtus albidis, cymis deiisiiloris paniculatis, calycibus pedicellisque incano-
velutinis piiosisque, petalis spathulatis unguiculatis. Lah. Ft. Nov. Holl. v. l . p . 61. t. 86. J)C. Frodr.
V. 2. p. 33. P. intermedia, Sieber, n. 210. P. Kumeraho, A. Cunn. Prodr.
H ab. Northern Island, abundant. HiUy situations from Auckland northwaxds, Cunningham, etc.
Fl. September. Nat. name, “ Kumaiahou," Colenso. (Cultivated in England.)
A sbimb, 4-6 feet high, branching from the base, having the branches, inflorescence, and leaves underneath
densely covered with a white or pale-grey pubescence. Leaves 2-3 inches long, on petioles i inch long, elliptical,
generally blunt, yellow-brown when dry. Cymes much branched, very many flowered, yellow and sweet-smelling,
2-6 inches across. Calyx tomeutose, and also covered with long silky hairs. Petals small, with crisped margins,
yellow.—Mr. Cunningham considered this plant different from the Austraban and Tasmanian one, and points out
supposed characters, in the sharper leaves, smaller and more lax panicle; in all which particulars he must have been
deceived by imperfect specimens; for though some Tasmanian specimens have broader and blunter leaves, approaching
ovate-oblong in shape, they vary much, and in some New Holland ones the leaves are even narrower and sharper
than in the New Zealand. The pilose calyx distinguishes this from P. discolor, Yent. I do not quote the ‘ Botanical
Magazine’ as a synonym for the P. elliptico, the calyx being there described as smooth. The native name,
“ Kumarahou,” is said to be given to this because it flowers at the time for planting the native potato, “ Kumarahou.”
2. Pomaderris encifolia, Hook.; fruticulus erectus, ramosus, scoparius, velutino-pubescens, ramulis
villosis, fobis parvis confertis patulis bneari-oblongis obtusis breve petiolatis superne scabridis margiuibus ad
costam revolutis, floribus parvis in cymos abbreviates paucifloros axiUares aggregatis, petabs nullis. Hook.
Journ. Bot. v. l . p . 257. A. Cunn. Prodr. Rbamnus axillaris. Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic.
H ab. Northern Island, dry bibs, abundant. El. September. Nat. name, “ Taubinu," Colenso.
A small, viUous, brownish, heath-bke shrub, with small uniform leaves, and axillary, white or yellowish flowers.
Branches white, covered with villous hairs, erect, numerous, fasciculate. Leaves cinereous when dry, 3-4 lines long,
patent, very numerous, linear-oblong, the margin rolled back to the midrib, blunt, channelled, and rather scabrid
above with short whitish hairs. Flowers minute, in numerous axiflaiy few-flowered cymes, which are scarcely longer
than the leaf, apetalous.—This species is not unfrequent in the northern parts of Tasmania, but has not hitherto
been found in Australia.
3. Pomaderris? sp.; fruticulus, ramubs folusque subtus rufo-tomentosis floccosis pilisque stellatis
onustis, folus breve petiolatis elbptico-oblongis obtusis superne impresso-venosis scabris.
H ab. Northern Island. “ Lofty hills, lat. 36°, about twenty miles from tbe sea-coast," Hdgerley.
Of this plant I have only a fragment: it is nearly albed to P. prunifolia, A. Cunn., of Australia, if not
identical with it, and may possibly have got into my New Zealand collection by accident; for Mr. Edgerley’s ticket
describes the “ fi-uit in panicles, capsules six-valved, three exterior and tln-ee interior, one- to two-seeded, ripening
in Januarywhereas his specimen has neither flower nor fruit, aud it is further the only plant in Mr. Edgerley’s
collections not found by any other cobector. It may be recognized at once by the fioccose yellow and red tomentum
on the branchlets and under surface of the leaves, mixed with stellate hafrs. Leaves f inch long, oblong, blunt,
scabrid above, with deep sunk veins, soft below, with very large prominent veins. It appears to form a small
straggling shrub.
Htackliouseoe?) FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 47
Gen. I I . DISCARIA, Hook,
^yx brevi-campanulatus, 4-o-fidus. Petala 4-5 v. 0. Anthera 2-loculares, longitudinabter
dehiscentes. Discus carnosus, pateriformis, basin ovarii cingens, margine libero subintegro. Stylus brevis ;
stigmate 3-lobo. Capsula 3-locularis; locubs I-spermis.
A curious genus, containing a few species of almost leafless spinous shiiibs, hitherto found only in extra-tropical
South America, the Gabapago Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. The New Zealand species only
differs from tbe Tasmanian in wanting petals, which is in this order a very trifling character, and would not be considered
of specific importance were it observed in Tasmanian specimens. The B. australis forms a thorny, smootli,
tortuous bush, 2-4 feet high, with stiff opposite spreading branches, of which the ultimate are reduced to straight,
woody, very sharp spines, 1-2 inches long. Leaves smab, fascicled at the axils of the spines (absent in old plants),
oblong-obovate or bnear-oblong, blunt or retuse, smooth or pubescent, entire (in young plants seiTulate?), incli
long. Flowers white, fascicled, on very short axblaiy peduncles, smootli or pubescent. Calyx with a short broadly
obconic tube, and four to five reflexed broadly-ovate subacute lobes. Petals none in tbe New Zealand plant, like
smab concave scales in the Tasmanian. Stamens alternate Lvith the lobes of the calyx. Disc broad, occupying the
base of the flower, with a narrow upturned margin. Ovary three-cebed, with one short style and three stigmata.
Capsule size of a pepper-corn, smooth, surrounded at the base by the remains of tbe calyx, tbree-lobed, thi'ee-celled :
cells one-seeded ; seed with a pale brown shining testa. (Name from bi<TKos, a disc, from the broad disc in which the
ovarium is seated.)
1. Discaria australis, Hook. Bot. Misc. v. l . p . 157. Colletia pubescens, Brongn. in Ann. Sc. Nat.
V. 10. jo. 366.
Yar. /3. apétala; floribus apetabs. D. Toumatou, Raoul, Choix de Plantes,p. 29. t. 29.
H ab. Yar./3. Northern and Middle Islands. East coast and interior, Nkzicid., Raoul. Nat.
name, “ Toumatou," Raoul. (Cultivated in England.)
In Australia this plant is found from the latitude of Sydney to that of Hobart Town. M. Raoul observes, that
the spines, made into a kind of comb, are used in the operation for tattooing with charcoal.
N a t . O r d . X X I I . STACKHOUSEÆ, B r .
Gen. I. STACKHOUSEA, Smith.
Calycis tubus ventricosus ; limbus 5-partitus. Petala 5, erecta, linearía, soluta v. in tubum coalita,
apicibus patentibus. Stamina 5, calyce inserta ; filamentis fibformibus, 2 alternis longioribus. Ovarium
3-5-lobum, 3-54oculare; ovubs locubs erectis, solitariis. 5, v. in unum apice 3-o-fidura coaliti.
Fructus 3-5-coccus; coccis crustaceis, 1-spermis, indehiscentibus; embryone in axi albuminis carnosi
orthotropo ; radicula infera.
The only New Zealand species is a minute slender herb, 1-2 inches high, with filiform, sparingly divided, erect
or procumbent stems, and alternate, scattered, linear or obovate, sharp, fleshy leaves, 2-3 bnes long. Flowers very
minute, solitary or few together towards the tops of the stems. Calyx five-lobed, with spreading segments. Corolla
tubular, of five linear erect petals, free above aud below, united down the middle, their tips spreading. Stamens
five; filaments unequal, slender; anthers haby. Owa?y tlu-ee-lobed, lobes one-celled, irith one erect ovifle; style
solitary, erect, three-cleft. Fi'uit of three generally unequal nuts, one or two being abortive, large for the size of
the plant, hard, indéhiscent, attached to a central column, from whicli they break away; seed erect.—This Natural
Order has hitherto been supposed to be exclusively confined to Australia, wbere there are two genera and about a
dozen species, all much larger herbs tlian the New Zealand ones. (Name in honour of J. Stackhouse, an English
botanist and author, especiaby eminent for his knowledge of Seaweeds.)
1. Stackhousia Hook. fil. ; pusilla, glaberrima, caule filiformi parce-diviso, foliis linearibus
®s