Plagianthus.] MALVACES. 77 
than the leaves. Calyx hemispherical, 5-toothed. Petals small, 
oblong-obovate, veined. Staminal tube with 8-12 large sessile 
anthers. Ovary l-celled, rarely 2-celled; ovules 1 in each cell; 
styles the same number as the cells, clavate or flattened. Fruiting 
carpel about the size of a peppercorn, globose or rarely didymous, 
downy, bursting irregularly. Seeds solitary, or very rarely 2.— 
A. fiuch. Fl. Now. Zel. 299; A. Cunn. Precur.n. 604; Raoul, Choix 
de Plantes, 48; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3271; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 
ime welanap. N.4. ht. 30;. Buch. in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi: t-34, 
f. 2; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 70. 
NortH AND SoutH IsLANDS, CHATHAM IsLANDS: Abundant in salt-water 
marshes from the North Cape to the Bluff. Septem ber—October. 
In the male flowers the ovary is smaller, almost rudimentary, and the style 
altogether enclosed within the staminal column; in the females the style is 
exserted, and the anthers are smaller and usually empty. 
2. P. eymosus, 7’. Kirk, Students’ Fl. 70.—A small closely 
branched tree about 20 ft. in height, glabrous except a few scattered 
stellate hairs on the young shoots and branches of the inflorescence. 
Leaves alternate or in alternate fascicles, $-l+in. long, linear or 
linear-oblong or linear-obovate, obtuse or subacute, with a few deep 
serratures towards the tip; petioles slender, 4-+in. long. Flowers 
small, unisexual, in small axillary 5-15-flowered cymes, 1-14 in. 
long, or in fascicles of 3-5, rarely solitary. Calyx campanulate, 
5-toothed, narrower in the female flowers. Petals 5, ovate-spathu- 
late or oblong-spathulate, much reduced in size in the females. 
Staminal column long and slender, with numerous anthers at the 
top. Ovary 1-2-celled; styles 1-2, clavate or broad and flattened. 
Fruiting carpels about $in. diam., didymous or globose, downy, 
seated in the persistent calyx. 
Norru Isuanp: Auckland—Kaitaia, Mongonui County, Rk. H. Matthews ! 
SourH Istanp: Canterbury—Upper Waimakariri, alt. 2800ft., J. D. Hnys 
(Kirk, ‘‘ Students’ Flora”). Otago—Near Dunedin, G. M. Thomson! Petrie! 
October. 
A very peculiar plant, very distinct in habit and inflorescence, although the 
flowers closely agree in structure with those of P. betwlinus, with the exception 
that the oyary is frequently 2-celled. It is remarkable that only one tree (a 
female) has been found in the Dunedin locality, and that only one (a male) is 
known at Kaitaia. The Waimakariri locality is given on the authority of Mr. 
Kirk. There are no specimens from thence in his herbarium. 
3. P. betulinus, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 605.—A handsome leafy 
tree 30-60 ft. high, with a trunk sometimes 3ft. in diam.; when 
young forming a straggling bush with interlaced tortuous branches. 
Bark exceedingly tough; branchlets, young leaves, petioles, and 
inflorescence more or less hoary with stellate hairs. Leaves of 
young plants small, 1% in. long, broadly ovate or rounded to ovate- 
lanceolate, deeply and irregularly lobed or crenate-serrate. Leaves 
of mature plants 1-3 in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 
coarsely crenate-serrate or doubly serrate, rounded or cuneate at 
