238 Transactions. — Botany. 



long, deeply 4-lobed. Stamens, 4. Female flowers smaller and 

 narrower than the male. Calyx adnate to the ovary, invested 

 at the base by mvolucels similar to those of the male ; limb 

 minute, truncate, or obscurely toothed. Corolla J^- Jj inch, 

 tubular, 3-4-lobed. Drupe variable in size, ^ - |- inch diameter, 

 globose or broader than long, often didymous, red. 



Distinguished from the following species by its spreading 

 habit, large round leaves, usually densely aggregated flowers, and 

 the smaller red drupe. From iJ. tenuicaidis it is removed by 

 its coarser and more open habit, much larger and more mem- 

 branous leaves, and by the colour of the drupe. C. rubra often 

 closely approaches it in foliage ; but the flowers are larger, and 

 the drupe is oblong and yellow. 



C. rotiindifolia usually affects deep rich alluvial soils by the 

 banks of rivers, and is particularly abundant in the swampy 

 forests fringing the Northern Wairoa, Thames, Waikato, and 

 other large streams in the North Island. The leaves are often 

 deciduous, so that in spring the plant is usually quite bare. 

 They are perhaps the most membranous of the genus. The 

 fruit is frequently didymous, as described in the " Handbook," 

 but by no means invariably so. 



13. C. areolata. 



Cheeseman, Trans. N.Z. Inst., xvii., p. 315. 



North Island. — Not uncommon in lowland districts. 



South Island. — Nelson, plentiful, T.F.C. Westland, A. 

 Hamilton! Canterbury, Banks Peninsula, T.F.C. Otago, not 

 uncommon, D. Cetrie. 



An erect, closely branched, shrub or small tree, 6-15 feet in 

 height. Branches slender, close, fastigiate, ultimate pubescent 

 or almost villous with soft greyish hairs. Leaves in opposite 

 pairs, ^-f inch long, orbicular-spathulate, ovate-spathulate, or 

 elliptic-spathulate, usually acute or apiculate, rather thin and 

 membranous, flat, glabrous or nearly so above, usually pubescent 

 on the veins below, suddenly narrowed into short hairy petioles ; 

 veins reticulated in large areoles. Flowers axillary, solitary or 

 in few-flowered fascicles. Males: Usually 2-4 together, small, 

 ^-^ inch. True calyx wanting, but one or two calycine 

 involucels closely invest the base of the corolla. Corolla broadly 

 campanulate, deeply 4-5-lobed. Females: solitary, or two 

 together, rarely more, -^X)~^ inch. long. Calyx-limb minute, 

 truncate, or obscurely toothed. Corolla narrow, tubular. Drupe 

 globose or broadly obovoid, ^-^ inch diameter, reddish-black or 

 nearly quite black. 



Allied on one side to C. rotundifolia, and on the other to C. 

 tenuicaulis. I have already pointed out its differences from the 

 first of these, and C. tenuicaulis is at onco separated by its 



