her visit to the Fiji Islands in 1907, found it at Nadari- 
vatu, Viti Levu, at an elevation of 2,700 feet. It has 
been recorded from Norfolk Island, but the material 
from this locality, collected by A. Cunningham, Milne 
and Backhouse, and preserved in the Kew Herbarium, 
does not quite agree with that from New Zealand. The 
Norfolk Island plant was described as Hymenanthera 
oblongifolia, A. Cunn. (Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. vol. i. 
p- 124) in 1842, and this has been identified, but certainly 
not correctly, with H. dentata, R. Br. It is evidently a 
Melicytus and must be very closely allied to M. ramiflorus. 
The material for our figure was communicated by the 
Rev, Arthur T. Boscawen of Ludgvan Rectory, Long 
Rock, Cornwall, the fruit in November, 1916, and the 
flower in June, 1917, from plants cultivated in the open 
raised from seed received from New Zealand in 1907. At 
Ludgvan the plant has withstood ten degrees of frost 
without serious injury. The species, which was intro- 
duced into England in 1822, is represented at Kew by 
plants in the Temperate House, one of which is planted 
out in ordinary garden soil, and is now a bush about 
10 feet high. Flowers are occasionally produced at Kew, | 
but not fruit. 
_DEscript1on.—Shrub of considerable size or at times a tree up to 30 ft. high,. 
dioecious, glabrous; trunk 1-2 ft. in diameter, bark grey, closely lenticelled. 
Leaves alternate, petioled, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate or acute, rarely obtuse, 
base cuneate, margin slightly undulate, serrate or crenate-serrate, thinly 
coriaceous, somewhat polished, dark green above, paler beneath, 2-6 in. long, 
i-2 in. wide ; petiole 3-{ in. long; stipules minute, soon falling. Flowers 
inconspicuous, in axillary clusters of 5-9, often on older shoots from the axils 
of fallen leaves, pale yellowish-green ; pedicels slender, 1-$ in. long; bracts 1-3, 
minute. Calyx somewhat cup-shaped, about } in. across; teeth 5, minute, 
triangular, brownish. Petals 5, spreading, ovate-triangular, barely ;}; in. long, 
rather thick, obtuse or somewhat acute. Male: Stamens 5; anthers sub- 
sessile, the connective with a rather large suborbicular scale bearing a minute 
erage Rudimentary ovary small. Female: Rudimentary stamens 5, minute. 
yA Yibaocigaetse py the P99 4-lobed stigma. Berry depressed-globose, 
67s 1. i et-blue. , : 
Sivek: te, fa dil voi eeds usually 6-8, brown, angled-ovoid, slightly 
Tas. 8763.—Fig. 1, portion of twig with fascicles of male flowers ; 2, male 
flower, preg: from above ; 3, the same, seen from beneath ; 4, stamen seen from 
he Per .0, the same, seen from behind, showing the nectariferous scale ; 
» twig with female flowers; 7, @ female flower; 8, pistil and rudimentary 
stamens; 9, seed:—all enlarged except 1 and 6, which are of natural size. 
