Rhabdothamnus.] GESNERACE, 563 
Nortx Istanp: Lowland districts from the North Cape southwards to 
Wellington, but rare and local to the south of the Auckland Province. Sea- 
level to 2000 ft. Waiuatua ; Matata. Flowers most of the year. 
For an account of the fertilisation, see a paper by Mr, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. 
Inst. vol. xxxv. p. 321. 
Orper LVII. MYOPORINEA.. 
Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate or scattered, rarely opposite, 
simple, entire or toothed; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphro- 
dite, irregular or almost regular. Calyx inferior, persistent, 5- 
partite or 5-fid. Corolla gamopetalous, hypogynous, 5 - lobed; 
lobes imbricate. Stamens 4, didynamous, rarely 5-6, inserted at 
the base of the corolla-tube; anthers introrse, cells confluent. 
Ovary superior, not lobed, normally 2-celled with 2 (rarely more) 
pendulous ovules in each cell, but sometimes the cells are more or 
less completely divided into 2, with a single ovule in each cell, or 
very rarely the cells may be as many as 5-10; style terminal ; 
stigma small, entire or emarginate. Fruit drupaceous, indehiscent, 
succulent or almost dry, 2-4-celled, rarely more-celled. Seeds 
solitary in each cell; albumen scanty, fleshy; embryo straight ; 
radicle superior, next the hilum. 
A small order, almost confined to Australia, a few species only being found 
in the Pacific islands, the Malay Archipelago, and South Africa, and one mono- 
typic genus in the West Indies. Genera 5; species about 90. The properties 
of the order are unimportant. 
1. MYOPORUM, Banks and Sol. 
Shrubs or small trees, glabrous or the branchlets glutinous. 
Leaves alternate, entire or serrate, studded with pellucid glands. 
Flowers small, axillary, solitary or fascicled. Calyx 5-lobed or 
-partite, not enlarged after flowering. Corolla campanulate; tube 
short ; limb 5d-lobed, lobes subequal or the iowest rather larger. 
Stamens 4, rarely 5 or 6, nearly equal, included or shortly exserted. 
Ovary ovoid, 2—4-celled, very rarely 5-10-celled, with 1 ovule in 
each cell, rarely 2-celled with 2 ovules in each cell. Drupe ovoid 
or subglobose, more or less succulent. 
A genus of about 25 species, mostly Australian, the rest scattered through 
the Pacific islands, the Malay Archipelago, China and Japan, and Mauritius. 
The single New Zealand species is endemic, but is very closely allied to some 
from the Pacific islands. 
1. M. letum, Forst. Prodr. n. 238.—A shrub or small tree 
8-25 ft. high; trunk 9-18in. diam.; bark brown, thick and fur- 
rowed; branches spreading, viscid at the tips. Leaves 14—4in. 
long, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or obovate, acute or acuminate, 
narrowed into petioles 4-lin. long, serrulate above the middle, 
bright-green, quite glabrous, almost fleshy, veins inconspicuous. 
Flowers in axillary fascicles of 2-6, small, about 4in. diam., white 
