Knightia. | PROTEACEZ:. 607 
A tall handsome tree, easily distinguished by its fastigiate mode of growth. 
The wood is beautifully variegated, reddish on a light-brown ground, and is 
much used for inlaying and cabinetwork, ornamental turnery, &c. For an 
account of the fertilisation of the flowers, see a paper by myself in Vol. IT. of 
the Journal of the Australasian Association. 
Orper LXXI. THYMELAACEA. 
Shrubs or trees, rarely herbs, inner bark tough and stringy. 
Leaves opposite or alternate, simple and entire; stipules wanting. 
Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual. in axillary or 
terminal heads or clusters, racemes or spikes, rarely solitary. 
Perianth inferior, gamophyllous, tubular or campanulate, often 
swollen at the base; throat usually furnished with scales or glands ; 
limb with 4-5 imbricate lobes. Stamens as many or twice as many 
as the corolla-lobes (in Pimelea 2 only) inserted on the perianth- 
tube ; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 1-celled or rarely 2-celled ; 
style short or long, terminal or lateral; stigma capitate ; ovules 
solitary or 1 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit indehiscent, 
a drupe or nut or berry. Seed pendulous, testa thin or crustaceous ; 
albumen fleshy or wanting; embryo straight, cotyledons fleshy, 
radicle superior. 
An order of moderate size, scattered over most parts of the world. Genera 
nearly 40, species estimated at 360. Many of the species are more or less acrid 
and caustic, as the spurge-laurel and mezereum, both of which are used in 
medicine. The roots of several furnish a yellow dye, and the tough inner bark 
of others is employed for cordage. Lagetta lintearia yields the well-known 
lace-bark, Several species of Daphne and Pimelea are well-known garden- 
plants. Of the 2 New Zealand genera, Pimelea is found elsewhere only in 
Australia, where it is largely developed; Drapetes has a wider range, extending 
to Australia and Borneo on one side and South America on the other. 
No scales within the perianth. Stamens 2 as .. 1. PIMELEA. 
Seales of the perianth 4 or 8. Stamens 4 oF .. 2. DRAPETES. 
1. PIMELEA, Banks and Solander. 
Shrubs or undershrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves opposite or alter- 
nate, usually small. Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamo-dicecious, 
usually terminal and capitate. Perianth-tube cylindrical; limb 
spreading, rarely erect, 4-lobed; throat without scales but some- 
times thickened or folded. Stamens 2, inserted on the throat of the 
perianth opposite the 2 outer lobes; filaments slender; anthers 
introrse. Hypogynous disc wanting. Ovary 1l-celled; style 
elongated ; stigma capitate ; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit small, 
drupaceous, included in the base of the perianth; epicarp dry or 
fleshy ; endocarp crustaceous. Seed pendulous, with a membranous 
testa ; albumen scanty or copious. 
A very natural and distinct genus of over 80 species, confined to Australia 
and New Zealand. The 12 species found in New Zealand are all endemic, with 
the exception of P. longifolia, which is said to occur in Lord Howe Island. 
Several of them are exceedingly variable, and appear to be connected by inter- 
mediate forms, making their proper definition a matter of great difficulty. This. 
