Beilschmiedia.} LAURINEZ. 603 
Norru Isuanp : Abundant in forests throughout. Soutu Istanp: Nelson 
and Marlborough—In various localities on the shores of Cook Strait. Sea- 
level to 2500 ft. Tawa. November—December. 
A well-known tree, in many portions of the North Island constituting the 
largest portion of the forest. The wood is white, straight in the grain, 
easily worked, and is largely used for buckets, tubs, casks, &c. The plum-like 
fruit was formerly collected by the Maoris for food, the pulpy portion being 
eaten in the raw state, and the kernel after prolonged steaming. 
2. LITSAA, Lam. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or rarely opposite, penni- 
nerved or triplinerved ; leaf-buds naked or scaly. Flowers dicecious, 
in 4-6- or rarely many-flowered umbels ; umbels axillary or fascicled 
or racemose, each one enclosed before the expansion of the flowers 
within a globose involucre ; involucral scales 4—6, broad, concave. 
Perianth-tube ovoid or campanulate or scarcely conspicuous ; limb 
with 4-6 segments, rarely more or fewer. Male flowers: Stamens 
usually 9-12; the filaments of the inner row or all glandular at the 
base ; anthers all introrse, 4-celled. Ovary rudimentary. Female 
flowers: Staminodia present. Ovary oblong or ovoid, narrowed 
into the style; stigma usually dilated and irregularly lobed. Fruit 
a more or less succulent berry, seated on the usually enlarged 
perianth-tube. 
Species about 150, most abundant in tropical and eastern Asia, the 
Malayan and Pacific islands, and Australia, rare in Africa and America. The 
single species found in New Zealand is endemic therein. 
1. L. calicaris, Benth. and Hook. f. ex T. Kirk Forest Fl. 
t. 10.—A perfectly glabrous closely branched leafy tree 30-40 ft. 
high, with a trunk 14-24 ft. diam; bark dark greyish - brown. 
Leaves alternate, petiolate, 2-5in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, 
obtuse or narrowed into an obtuse point, quite entire, firm but 
hardly coriaceous, often glaucous beneath; petioles $-lin. long. 
Flowers often very abundantiy produced, in 4—5-flowered involucrate 
umbels arranged in short axillary racemes. Involucral leaves 
ustially 4. Pedicels short, silky. Perianth-segments 5-8, oblong 
or ovate, obtuse. Stamens about 12; filaments slender, all with 
2 stipitate glands near the base. Female flowers rather smaller 
and less numerous than the males. Staminodia flattened, each 
2-glandular near the base. Ovary ovoid; stigma dilated, irregularly 
3-lobed. Berry oblong-ovoid, #in. long, reddish, seated in a flat 
cup-shaped disc composed of the enlarged perianth-tube.—Tetran- 
thera calicaris, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 216; Handb. N.Z. Fil. 288. 
T. Tangao, R. Cunn. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 353. Laurus calicaris, 
Sol. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 353; Raoul, Choix, 42. 
Nortx Istanp: Not uncommon in forests from the North Cape southwards 
to Rotorua and the East Cape. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Mangeao; Tangeao. 
September—October. 
Wood strong, tough, and elastic, suitable for all classes of coopers’ or 
wheelwrights’ work, for ships’ blocks, &c. 
