KiKK. — On Paratrophis heterophylla. 499 



having scarious white margins. Perianth deeply 4-partite, 

 lobes rounded, ciliate ; stamens 4, exserted. Female flowers 

 in short 3-6-flowered spikes ; flowers distant ; perianth deeply 

 4-partite, the outer segments smaller than the inner ; stigma 

 short, bifid ; ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled. Fruit as large as a 

 peppercorn, 1-seeded, red, spherical, tipped with the short 

 straight style. The slender rhachis becomes pendulous as the 

 fruit ripens ; it is remarkable that the fruits are almost invari- 

 ably solitary, although the spikes are 3-6-flowered. 



Var. elliptica is erect from a very early stage, and does 

 not appear to pass through the remarkable stages of leaf- 

 variation described above. It may be, however, that more ex- 

 tended observation might render it necessary to modify this 

 statement, but I have seen no indication of such change. The 

 twigs are straight, erect, with brown bark. The leaves are 

 erect and rather close set from the first, oblong or elliptic- 

 oblong, acute, subacute, or obtuse, margins crenate or crenate- 

 dentate, coriaceous, lin.-3^in. long, |^in.-lin. broad, slightly 

 narrowed at both ends, but not obovate. Both male amenta 

 and female spikes are often geminate, although usually soli- 

 tary, and are larger than those of the type, sometimes l^iu. 

 long or more. The drupes, however, are numerous, the size 

 of small peas, and, being produced in great profusion, resemble 

 at a short distance racemes of red currants, the resemblance 

 being increased by the slender rhachis being invariably pendu- 

 lous. Tt seems not unlikely that the greater number of perfect 

 fruits on a spike in this variety may be due to the spikes being 

 usually developed on the naked portions of the branchlets, 

 and thus being more readily fertilised than when hidden 

 amongst the leaves, and it is not impossible that the more 

 robust habit of this plant may be indirectly connected with 

 the same characteristic. Notwithstanding the very different 

 aspect presented by the extreme forms, a gentle gradation may 

 be traced from the small membranous lobulate or pinnatifid 

 leaves of the early stage of the type to the large elliptical entire 

 leaves of var. ellij)tica, but it is not easy to find intermediate 

 stages among the drupes. 



Female flowers appear continuously through the season, 

 especially in var. elliptica, in which they are developed to the 

 end of Februar}- . In this form the unfertilised stigmas often 

 remain on the rhachis until the drupes are nearly ripe. The 

 wood is white, compact, and rather hard, but perishable. 



Tropins opaca, Eanks and Sol., ex Hook. f. Fl. N.Z., i. 224. 

 Epicarpunis microphyllus, Eaoul, Ann. Sc. Nat., ser. iii., 

 ii. (1844), 117 ; Choix de PL de la Nouv.-Zel., xiv., t. 9; 

 Hook, f., Handbk. N.Z. Fl., 251. Taxoiropliis microphylla, 

 F. Muell., Fragm. Phyt. Austr., vi., 193. 



