O74 NYCTAGINEZ. [Pisonia. 
ovule solitary, basilar, erect. Fruit a utricle with a membranous 
pericarp, firmly enclosed in the thickened or hardened base of. the 
perianth-tube, which falls off with it. Seed erect, with a thin 
adherent testa; albumen farinaceous or fleshy; embryo with 
foliaceous cotyledons usually wrapped round the albumen, radicle 
inferior. 
A small order, of no economical importance, with the exception of 2 or 3 
wide-ranging genera almost wholly confined to tropical America. Genera 23; 
species about 200. The single New Zealand genus is distributed over the shores 
of most tropical countries. 
1. PISONTA, Linn. 
Trees or shrubs, usually unarmed, rarely spinous. Leaves oppo- 
site or scattered. Flowers unisexual or hermaphrodite, small, 
2-3-bracteolate at the base, usually arranged in lax or dense 
cymose panicles. Perianth of the male flowers funnel-shaped or 
almost campanulate, of the females tubular, sometimes swollen at 
the base ; limb 5-toothed ; teeth short, induplicate-valvate, erect or 
patent. Stamens 6-10; filaments unequal, connate at the base 
into a tube or ring; anthers oblong or didymous, exserted or 
included. Ovary elongated, narrowed into a slender included or 
exserted style; stigma obliquely capitate or dilated, often fimbriate. 
Fruiting perianth elongated or oblong, 5-ribbed or cylindrical, 
smooth or glandular-muricate, usually viscid, firmly enclosing the 
membranous utricle. Seed solitary, oblong, longitudinally grooved ; 
embryo straight, the cotyledons convolute, enclosing the scanty 
albumen. 
A large genus in tropical and subtropical America, with a few species in 
southern Asia, Australia, Polynesia, and the Mascarene Islands. The New 
Zealand species occurs in Norfolk Island and Australia, and may possibly have 
a wider range. 
1. P. Brunoniana, Hdl. Prodr. F'l. Norfl. 43.—A glabrous shrub 
or small tree, usually 12-20ft. high, but sometimes attaining 
35 ft. with a trunk 2ft. in diam.; wood soft, brittle. Leaves 
usually opposite, but often irregularly alternate or sometimes 
approximate in threes, petiolate, 4-15 in. long, oblong to 
ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse or subacute, quite entire, 
membranous and flaccid when young, but becoming firm in age. 
Cymes much branched, terminal, many - flowered. Flowers 
usually hermaphrodite, but sometimes the stamens are abortive. 
Perianth Lin. long, greenish, glabrous or puberulous, funnel- 
shaped with a campanulate mouth. Stamens 6-8; anthers. 
equalling the perianth or slightly exserted. Fruit 1-14in. long, 
linear, narrowed above, 5-ribbed ; ribs minutely papillose, extremely 
viscid.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 229; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 280; Kirk, 
Forest Fl. t. 140. P. Sinclairii, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 209, t. 50. 
P. Mooreiana, F’. Muell. Fragm. i. 20. 
