234 Transactions. — Botany. 



6. C. robusta. 



Eaoul, Choix des Plantes, 23, t. 21. Hook, fil., Flora Nov. Zeal., i. p. 105 ; 



Handbk. N.Z. Flora, p. 113. 



North and South Islands. — Common in lowland districts, 

 from the North Cape to Invercargill. 



Chatham Islands. — J. Buchanan (" Trans. N.Z. Inst.," vii., 

 p. 336). 



A stout, leafy, glossy-green slirub, G-15 feet high, perfectly 

 glabrous in all its parts ; bark greyish-brown. Leaves coria- 

 ceous, very variable in size and shape, 1-^-5 inches long, 

 lanceolate to broad elliptic-oblong, acute, rarely obtuse, narrowed 

 into short stout petioles, dark-green and shiniog above, paler 

 below. Flowers clustered in axillary many-flowered glomerules. 

 Males : Calyx minute, cupular, minutely 4 - 5-toothed or quite 

 truncate. Corolla y-^ inch long, campanulate, shortly or 

 deeply 3 - 5-lobed. Stamens, 3-5. Females: Much smaller, 

 ^ - -^ inch long. Calyx-limb truncate, or rarely with a few 

 irregular teeth. Corolla tubular, shortly 3 -5-lobed. Drupes 

 densely packed, oblong to ovoid, rarely obovoid, \-\ inch long, 

 yellowish- or reddish-orange. 



C. robusta has a very wide and general distribution. Unlike 

 many of the other species, it is not restricted to any particular 

 class of habitat, but is seen in all soils and situations, whether 

 sheltered or exposed, near the sea or inland. As a rule, how- 

 ever, it does not ascend the mountains to a greater height than 

 about 2,500 feet. In its ordinary state it is not at all difticult 

 to recognize. The characters separating it from C. lucida I 

 have pointed out under that species. From C. haueriana it is 

 chiefly distinguished by its firm coriaceous leaves, which are not 

 at all fleshy, by the much larger fascicles of flowers, and by the 

 rather smaller and more pointed fruit. From C. cunnimjhamii 

 it differs in the larger broader leaves, much more numerous 

 flowers, and in the colour of the drupe, which appears to be 

 always pale and transparent in C. ctinin'ngJiavni. I have, how- 

 ever, intermediate forms which are difiicult to place, judgmg 

 from foliage and inflorescence alone. From C. acutijulia, C. 

 tenui/ulia, and C. arborea, it is at once separated by the texture 

 and shape of the leaves, and by numerous other points. 



7. C. cunninghamii. 



Hook, fil., Handbk. N.Z. Flora, p. 113. C. fatidissinui, A. Cunn., Prodr., 



t?i part, noil Forst. 



North Island. — Not uncommon in the lowlands, chiefly in 

 alluvial grounds by the banks of rivers. 



South Island. — Usually near the coast. Various localities in 

 Nelson, T.F.C. Banks Peninsula and lowlands of Canterbury, 



