236 Transactions. — Botany. 



propose to repeat it here, as I have no fresh information to 

 offer. The plant was first collected on the Euabine Mountains 

 by Mr. Colenso, many years ago. In the " Handbook " Sir 

 Joseph Hooker referred it, with some doubt, to C. acutifoUa. 

 He now considers it to be distinct, and in this view is supported 

 by Mr. N. E. Brown, who has pointed out to me that the vena- 

 tion of the leaves is entirely different in the two plants, and that 

 C. acutifolia is quite glabrous, while C. tenidfolia is more or less 

 pubescent on the stipules, young branchlets, and midrib and 

 petioles. The inflorescence is probably quite distinct, but as at 

 present the male flower of C. acutifolia and the young females 

 of C. tenui/olia are alone known, it is difl&cult to form an 

 opinion ; although it seems likely that the inflorescence of C. 

 tenuifolia will prove to be more compact than that of O. acuti- 

 folia. 



10. C. arborea. 



Kirk, Trans. N.Z. Inst., x., p. 420. 



North Island. — Not uncommon from the North Cape south- 

 wards to the Waikato and Thames Elvers. Altitudinal rauge 

 from sea-level to 1,000 feet. 



A closely-branched round-headed tree, 20-30 feet high, with 

 much of the habit and appearance of Myrsine urvillei. Trunk 

 6-14 inches in diameter, wood yellowish. Branchlets terete, 

 puberulous towards the tips, bark greyish-brown. Leaves coria- 

 ceous, variable in size, 1-3 inches long, -^-1^ inches broad, 

 ovate -spathulate or orbicular- spathulate, obtuse or refuse, 

 suddenly narrowed into winged petioles ^-f inch long, 

 yellowish-green above, often reddish below ; veins closely reti- 

 culate ; margins flat. Stipules short, triangular, finely ciliate 

 when young. Flowers densely clustered in many-flowered 

 glomerules or heads, which terminate the main branches 

 as well as short axillary branchlets. Males: calyx narrow, 

 deeply divided into 4-5 linear or linear-oblong ciliate lobes. 

 Corolla campanulate, i-inch long, deeply 4-5-lobed, lobes broad, 

 acute. Stamens 4-5, filaments very long. Females: glomerules 

 smaller, usually 4- 12-flowered. Calyx -limb 4-6-toothed. 

 Corolla smaller and narrower than in the males. Drupes 

 closely packed, globose, or more rarely broadly oblong or 

 obovoid, colourless and semi-transparent, J --J inch in diameter. 



The largest species of the genus, and very distinct from any 

 other. Tlie foliage is nearest to that of C. spathnhda, but is 

 much larger, and the petioles much shorter in proportion. The 

 male flowers are very closely packed, forming large spherical 

 glomerules, and these are placed at the terminations oi' the 

 main branches, as well as on short axillary branchlets. The 

 calyx of the male flowers is better developed, and has deeper 

 divisions than in any other species. 



