Metrosideros. | MYRTACE®. 165: 
obtuse, rounded at the base, sessile, rather membranous, glabrous 
or slightly silky when young. Flowers small, pink or whitish- 
pink, in small latera! few-flowered cymes or racemes; pedicels 
slender, glabrous or pubescent. Calyx-tube pyriform, suddenly 
expanded into a short and broad cup-shaped limb; lobes 5, 
ovate-triangular. Petals orbicular, shortly clawed, exceeding the 
calyx-lobes. Stamens slender, 4in. long. Ovary wholly adnate 
to the base of the calyx-tube. Capsule small, $-t+in. long, glo- 
bose, 3-lobed, crowned by the funnel-shaped calyx-limb, loculici- 
dally 3-valved to the base.—Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. 
Zel. i. 67, t. 16; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 71; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 161. 
M. subsimilis, Col. im Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 361. 
NortH anp SourH Istanps, Stewart Istanp: Abundant in forests from 
the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2000 ft. November—January. 
The smallest species of the genus. The flowers are occasionally quite 
white, and are always produced on the old wood, never terminal. 
7. M. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 68.—A slender climb- 
ing shrub with numerous very slender leafy terete or obscurely 
tetragonous branches; branchlets densely pubescent or setose. 
Leaves distichous, often imbricating, sessile or very shortly peti- 
oled, +-$in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 
rounded at the base, almost membranous, densely pubescent when 
young, often becoming almost glabrous when mature. Flowers. 
small, pink or whitish, in terminal or lateral trichotomous cymes 
which are rarely more than 14in. long; peduncles and pedicels 
silky-pubescent. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, much longer than the 
ovary, pubescent ; lobes small, narrow-triangular, acute, as long as. 
or slightly longer than the small orbicular petals. Ovary wholly 
adnate to the base of the calyx-tube. Capsule small, 4-4 in. long, 
globose, 3-lobed, crowned by the long funnel-shaped calyx-limb, 
loculicidally 3-valved to the base.— Handb. N.Z. Fl. 72; Kirk, 
Students’ Fl. 162. 
Var. pendens, Kirk, /.c.—Branchlets much more slender, almost filiform, 
pendulous. Flowers white.—M. pendens, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 
360. 
NortH anp Sour Isrtanps: In forests from the Bay of Islands (Hand- 
book) to Nelson and Marlborough, but far from common. December— 
January. 
Allied to the preceding species, but easily distinguished bythe much more: 
slender habit, pubescent branchlets, and by the thinner much more acumi- 
nate and usually pubescent leaves. I have seen no specimens from the north of 
the Waikato River. 
8. M. robusta, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 557.—-A tall and stout 
forest-tree, 60-80 or even 100ft. high; trunk irregular, 3-8 ft. 
diam. or more; branches spreading, forming a huge rounded head ; 
branchlets 4-angled, puberulous. Leaves decussate, 1—1+in. long, 
elliptic-oblong or ovate-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous, 
