Corynocarpus. | ANACARDIACEZ. 105 
Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 49; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 46; Kirk, Forest 
Fl. t. 88; Students’ Fl. 96. 
Kermapec Istanps, Norru IsuaAnp, CHatHam IstANps: Abundant, chiefly 
in lowland situations not far from the sea. SourH Istanp: Marlborough 
and Nelson to Banks Peninsula and Westland, but very rare and local. 
Karaka. August—November. 
The pulpy part of the fruit is edible; but the seed is highly poisonous 
unless steamed, or steeped in salt water. See Mr. Colenso’s valuable paper 
‘On the Vegetable Food of the New-Zealanders’’ (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. 25), 
also notes by Mr. Skey and Mr. Colenso (l.c. iv. 316). The wood is soft and 
almost useless. 
OrpveR XXI. CORIARIEA. 
Glabrous shrubs, sometimes small and almost herbaceous ; 
branches angular, the lower opposite. Leaves opposite or rarely 
in whorls of 3, entire, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphro- 
dite or polygamous, small, usually in axillary racemes. Sepals 
5, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5, hypogynous, smaller than the 
sepals, keeled within, enlarged after flowering and becoming thick 
and fleshy and embracing the fruit. Stamens 10, hypogynous, 
free, or the alternate ones adnate to the petals; filaments short ; 
anthers large. Disc absent. Carpels 5-10, free, 1-celled, whorled 
on a short conical receptacle; styles as many as the carpels, 
free, thick, elongated, covered for the whole length with stig- 
matic papillae; ovules solitary, pendulous from the top of the 
cell. Fruit of 5-10 oblong indehiscent cocci, closely embraced 
by the fleshy and juicy petals, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed with a 
membranous testa; albumen a thin layer only; embryo with 
plano-convex cotyledons and a superior radicle. 
A small order of very doubtful relationship, comprising the single genus 
Coriaria. Species 8 or 10, found in New. Zealand, South America, Japan, 
China, the Himalayas, north Africa, and south Europe. 
1. CORIARIA, Linn. 
Characters of the order, as above. 
Shrub or small tree. Leaves 1-3in., oblong-ovate. 
Racemes drooping . Sb at A i 
Suffruticose or herbaceous. Leaves 4-1in., ovate-lance- 
olate ‘ a of: Ac 72 .. 2. C. thymifolia. 
Herbaceous. Leaves 4-4} in., narrow-linear Be .. 3. C. angustissima. 
1. C. ruscifolia, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1037.—A shrub or small 
tree with spreading 4-angled branches, very variable in height and 
degree of robustness, sometimes attaining 25 ft. with a trunk 10 in. 
diam., at others not more than 2—4it., with almost herbaceous 
stems. Leaves 1—-3in., ovate or oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate, 
rounded or cordate at the base, sessile or very shortly petioled, 
3—-d-nerved. Racemes drooping, many-flowered, 4-12in. long or 
more, slightly pubescent; pedicels slender, }-}in., bracteolate at 
1. C.ruscifolia. 
