Tab. 7927. 

 MERYTA Drkhami. 



Native of New Caledonia and New Hebrides. 



Nat. Ord. Araliace^. 

 Genus Meryta, Forst.; (Benth. et Hoolc.f. Gen. Plant, vol. i. p. 940.) 



Meryta Denhami ; arbor parva, dioica, trunco gracili ssepius simplici interdum 

 fnrcato vel pauci ramoso (specimen in horto kewensi cultum ? circiter 

 17 ped. altum, trunco supra medium fnrcato basi 3 poll, diametro, foliia 

 maximis 3| ped. longis), foliis alternis coriaceis glabris dimorpbis vel 

 heteromorphis, iis plantarum omnino juvenilium linearibus 6-12 poll, 

 longis 4-6 lin. latis, iis plantarum adultarum distincte petiolatis ligulatis 

 lanceolatis vel oblanceolatis l§-4 ped. longis 2-9 poll, latis grosse undu- 

 lato-crenatis apice acntis. vel rotundatis deorsum attenuatis, costa 

 crassa, venis primariis latei'alibus prominentibus in crenas excurrentibus, 

 petiolo compresso-tereti, inflorescentiis ? capitato-paniculatis folia fere 

 a^quantibus in axillis foliorum superiorum subsessilibus, ramis crassis 

 carnosis, capitulis multifloris subglobosis li-lj P°^'- diametro pedun- 

 culatis, pedunculis crassis lg— 2 poll, longis basi bractea ampla acuminata 

 membranacea cito decidua instructis, floribus ? sessilibus vel arete con- 

 fertis ima basi connatis flavo-virentibus, calycis limbo obsoleto, petalis 

 circiter 10 (7-12) lignlatis recurvis quam stylis vix longioribus, statninibus 

 iroperfectis 10, ovario 10-(7-12-) loculari, stylis late stigmatosis sulcatis 

 undulatis recurvis, ovulis in loculis solitariis ab apice loculorum pendulis, 

 f rnctu ignoto. 



M. Denhami, Seem. Bonplandia, vol. x. 1862, p. 295. 



Aralia reticulata, Hort. 



There are specimens of Meryta Denhami in the Kew 

 Herbarium, from a plant which flowered in the Palm 

 House in I860, accompanied by drawings and a brief 

 description of the floral structure by A. A. Black, then, 

 and for too brief a period thereafter, Curator. He found 

 the parts of the flower varying from five to nine, and we 

 have found them from seven to twelve in the same in- 

 florescence. It was introduced to Kew by William Grant 

 Milne, a gardener who was on Captain Denham's Expedi- 

 tion to the South Sea. He collected it in the Isle of 

 Pines, New Caledonia, in 1853, and what appears to be 

 the same species has since been collected by Archdeacon 

 Comins in the island of Santa Maria, Banks's Group, 

 Northern New Hebrides, where it attains a height of 

 thirty feet or more, with leaves one to two feet long. 

 Apparently all the plants in cultivation were raised from 



December 1st, 1303. 



