Cheeseman. — On the Flora of the Kermadec Islands. 173 



30. URTICEiE. 



57. Parietaria debilis, Forst. 



Sunday and Macaulay Islands ; plentiful. New Zealand, 

 Norfolk Island, Lord Howe's Island, Australia, and the 

 tropics of both hemispheres. 



58. *Bcehmeria australis, Endl. 



A small tree, 8-20 feet high. Branches terete, hoary 

 with minute appressed hairs. Leaves alternate, ovate- 

 lanceolate to ovate, acuminate, obtusely serrate, rounded or 

 slightly cordate at the base, 3-6 inches long ; 3-nerved, 

 green and glabrous above, below white and hoary with 

 appressed hairs. Petioles stout, grooved on the upper 

 surface, \-\\ inches long. Stipules small, deciduous, ovate- 

 lanceolate. Flowers minute, in small axillary sessile glome- 

 rules, nearly all females in my specimens, but in one or two 

 the lower glomerules have male flowers at the base of 

 the glomerule. Male flowers : Perianth deeply 4-partite, 

 segments oblong-ovate, acuminate, covered with erect 

 hairs. Stamens 4, alternating with the perianth seg- 

 ments ; filaments elastic, exserted and recurved between 

 the perianth segments when the flower is mature. A 

 minute oblong-clavate rudiment of an ovary present. 

 Females : Perianth tubular, compressed, dilated below, 

 contracted at the two-toothed mouth. Ovary included, 

 1-celled, 1-ovulate; stigma exserted, long, filiform, spirally 

 recurved, hirsute. Pipe fruit not seen. This seems to 

 differ from Endlicher's plant in the leaves not being so 

 decidedly cordate at the base. Sunday Island ; not uncom- 

 mon in the lower portions of the island. Norfolk Island. 



31. Chloranthace.e. 



59. Ascarina lucida, Hook, f. 



Sunday Island ; plentiful on the hills. I have followed 

 Sir J. D. Hooker in referring the Kermadec plant, wdiich he 

 originally distinguished under the name of A. lanceolata, to 

 the New Zealand A. lucida. But the leaves are much 

 longer and narrower, and more coarsely toothed, than in 

 any New Zealand specimens I have seen. New Zealand, 

 Fiji, Samoa, New Caledonia. 



32. PlPERACEiE. 



60. Piper excelsum, Forst. 



Extremely plentiful all over the lower portions of Sunday 

 Island. Differs from the New Zealand plant in the very 

 much longer leaves and longer catkins. New Zealand, 

 Norfolk Island, Lord Howe's Island, Australia. 



