•94 Transactions. — Botany. 



Order XLIII.— MYESINE^. 

 Genus 1. Myrsine, Linn. 



1. If. pendula, sp. nov. 



A small slender tree, erect, 10ft. high, trunk below for 

 4ft. -5ft. bare ; branches many, long, pendulous ; young 

 branchlets finely and thickly pubescent, straight or slightly 

 curved ; bark reddish-brown. Leaves numerous, alternate, 

 close and scattered, single and in pairs, orbicular and oblate- 

 orbicular, retuse (sometimes sub-emarginate and sometimes 

 rounded), usually 3-4 (rarely 5-6) lines diameter, not tapering 

 to petiole, patent, green above pale below, sub-membrana- 

 ceous, dotted with a few scattered dark-orange globular 

 raised dots, aiad with several smaller and linear-oblong ones ; 

 veined, veins spreading, sub-flabelliform ; veinlets finely reti- 

 culated ; margin slightly uneven, thickened, closely lined with 

 dark-orange raised globular dots (making the edge to appear 

 as if it were coloured red) ; ciliated, cilias flattish, short, 

 ragged, irregular, weak ; petiole very short, pubescent, wath 

 small thickish dark-coloured stipellse at base. Flowers axil- 

 lary, scattered, single, sometimes in pairs (rarely 3 together), 

 very minute, 1 line diameter ; peduncle very short. Calyx 

 pale-greenish, glabrous, 4-lobed, not cut to base; lobes broadly 

 ovate, obtuse, ciliolate. Corolla, petals 4, brown, oblong, 

 obtuse, recurved from middle and appressed, 1-nerved, much 

 reticulated, with a few (4) minute scattered glandular dark- 

 orange dots ; margins ciliate and fimbriate ; fimbrias crisp, 

 crinkled. Anthers 4, dark-brown, deltoid-ovate, sub-cordate, 

 appressed, tips minutely crested, crinkled ; filaments very 

 short beneath ovary half the length of the anther. Stigma 

 sessile, large, depressed, irregular, spreading. Ovary ovoid- 

 orbicuhxr. Fruit large, globular, 1\ lines diameter, purple, 

 glabrous ; apex depressed, hollowish. 



Hab. Woods near Eiver Mangateraa, south of Dannevirke, 

 County of Waipawa ; 1888 : W. G. Flowering in October and 

 fruiting in May. 



Ohs. A species very near to M. divaricata, A. Cunn. ; but 

 differing from it in its larger size and habit, in form position 

 &c. of its leaves, in its fimbriated petals and its peculiar 

 crested anthers, and in its larger depressed and purple fruit. 

 When closely examined and compared with the very full and 

 able description and drawing with numerous dissections of 

 M. {Suttonia) divaricata given by Hooker f. in his " Flora 

 Antarctica," vol. i., p. 51, tab. 54, this species will be found 

 to differ considerably in many particulars. In drying the 

 .specimens their leaves fall off in large numbers ; they also 

 become sub-rugulose and shrivelled on the lower surface. 



