serrata, Forst. Prodr. DC. Prodr. A . Rich. F l. Nov. Zeal. Elæocarpus dicera, Willd., B ank s et Sol. Ic.
et M S S . Triphalia rubicunda, Sol. MSS.
H ab. N o rth e rn and Middle Islan d s, abundant, Forster, etc. El. October to Jan u a ry an d Eebruary.
N a t. 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 not a simple raceme) half as long as the leaves, from whose
axils they arise. Peduncles and pedicels slender. Flowers small, 2 -4 lines across ; males largest. Petals rosy, three-
lobed ; those of the female flowers very small. Stamens many, bright yellow, covered with microscopic hairs ;
anthers longer than the filaments. Ovary usually four-celled. Berry as large as a pea, eaten by the natives, acid.
2. fru tico sa , 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 su b te r venosis, floribus 4-meris dioicis axillaiibus, pedunculis 1 -3-floris
basi bracteolatis, sepalis ovatis obtusis, petalis calyce æquilongis obovatis integris v. obscure lobatis infl. foem.
abbreviatis, staminibus 4 - 6 , filamentis brevibus, antheris pubescentibus, ovario 2-4-loculari, bacca globosa
4 -6 -sp e rm a , te sta ossea.
Var. a . sxibereeta; foliis 1 unc. longis coriaceis crenatis.
Var. erecta; foliis 1 - l i unc. longis dentatis v. serratis minus coriaceis.
Var. 7 . p ro stra ta ; foliis parvis longis oblongis coriaceis.
Var. 8. microphylla; suberecta, ramis divaricatis virgatis laxe foliosis, foliis parvis coriaceis obovato-
sp ath u latis obtusis, baccis parvis.
H ab. N o rth e rn and Middle Islands. Var. a and /3. E a st C o a st; Ruahine range, at a considerable
elevation, Colenso. Var. 7 . Milford Sound, L y a ll ; Nelson, B id vn ll. Var. 8. Base of Tongariro, an d 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. /3 have the leaves more membranous, sharply serrate, and occasionally very irregularly
lobed, resembling those of a starved plant of A . racemosa. The flowers and frait are, however, the same in all these
locaUties, varjdiig but little in size, and not at all in s tm c tm e .S tem s and branches woody, covered with red-brown
b a rk ; upper and petioles pubescent. Leaves on short petioles, generally very 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 -2 lines across, four-celled, three- to five-seeded. SeedrS 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 under A.fruticosa.
N a t . O r d . X III. OLACÏNEÆ, Mirh.
Gen. I . P E N N A N T IA , Forst.
Flores dioici. Calyx obsoletus. Pe tala 5, valvata. E l . d Stamina 5^ petalis alterna ; filamentis g ra cilibus
; antheris longe ex se rtis; pollen spbæricum, 3 -lin e a tum ; ru d im en tum ovarii minimum conicum.
E l . ? Stamina abbreviata, inclusa. Ovarium lineari-oblongum, obtuse trigonum, stigmate sessili 3-lobo
co ro n atum ; ovulum 1 e apice columnse basilaris ovarii parieti adnatae p en dulum, umbilico brevi incrassato.
Bacca ovoidea, carnosa, stigm ate persistente trígono co ro n a ta ; p u tamin e tríg o n o crustáceo superne infra
apicem perforate. Semen p en d u lum ; te sta tenuissima, chalaza et raphe in s tru c ta ; albumine c a rn o so ; em-
bryoue parvo recto, a x ili; radícula anguste clavata, s u p e ra ; cotyledonibus parvis, plano-convexis. Forst.
Gen .Q l. Prodr.p.2>1^.
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 diying. Flowers white, fragrant, in
terminal panicles, of which 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 lo n g ; males largest, reflexed. Stamens alternate
with the petals; those of the male flowers with flexuose filaments, longer than the p etals; 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 tbi-ee-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 i inch long, enclosing a trigonous hard nut, with three fiat 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 and 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 io Icacina. (Name in honour of Thomas
Pennant, an eminent Scottish naturalist.)
1. Pennantia corymbosa, Eorst. Prodr. A. R ich . Fl. Nov. Zeal. A . Cunn. Prodr. P . odorata,
Raoul, An n . Sc. N a t. Meristoides paniculata, Ba n k s et Sol. Ic. et M S S . T ab. X I I .
H a b . N o rth e rn and Middle I s la n d s ; mountainous woods; east coast. Banks a n d Solandei', Colenso,
etc. Akaroa, Raoul. Nelson, B idw ill. N a t. name, " Kaikomako,”
A very graceful flowering tree, 2 0-30 feet high, which may be recognized by the characters given under the
genus. The wood is considered the best for producing fire by friction. The economy of the ovary and fruit is
extremely curious, as is often the case with Olacineee, and its nearly allied natiual orders, Santalacea and Loranthacea,
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 ai-e still so rudimentary as only to be recognized by careful
examination of the ovary iu fresh specimens, and from their very earliest period of growth. The thi-ee stigmata
aud trigonous form of the ovary indicate tlie 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, arising from
the bottom of tbe 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 d ry ; but it is very evident in the fruit, as the cord passing up the outside
of the nut, fig. ],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 offer, in corroboration of tbis opinion, the structure
of Marlea. In that genus the pendulous ovules are lodged iu cavities of the 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 beiTy (with three nuts or a three-cellcd nut) is
the result, each nut perforated at its upper inner angle, opposite the position of the apex of the column. I t is not
surprising that the central column of Pennantia should, in its i-ndimcntary state, be included iu the wall of the
ovarmm. nor that two cells should be absorbed, nor that two orales sliould be wanting; but it is curious (though