Drapetes. | THYMELMACE. 615 
2. DRAPETES, Banks. 
Small prostrate spreading or densely tufted shrubby plants. 
Leaves small, alternate, imbricate, concave. Flowers hermaphro- 
dite or polygamo-diccious, sessile in small terminal heads. 
Perianth tubular or funnel-shaped ; lobes 4, spreading; throat usu- 
ally furnished with 1 or 2 scales opposite each lobe, rarely naked. 
Stamens 4, inserted on the throat of the perianth and alternate with 
its lobes; filaments short, filiform; anthers oblong. Hypogynous 
scales wanting. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style long; stigma capi- 
tate ; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit a smalldrupe; epicarp thin, 
fleshy; endocarp crustaceous. Seed pendulous, cotyledons broad, 
thick. 
A small genus of 5 species, found in Fuegia, New Zealand, Australia, New 
‘Guinea, and Borneo. The New Zealand species are endemic. 
Branches glabrous or slightly villous. Leaves ;4-}in., 
linear or linear-ligulate. Male perianth funnel-shaped. 
Scales 4, entire or 2-lobed, or 8 in very closely approxi- 
mate pairs ba oh an uM 4 
Branches densely villous. Leaves 4-} in., linear-subulate, 
broadest at the base. Male perianth funnel-shaped. 
1. D. Dieffenbachir. 
Scales 8, in distinct pairs ae a6 .. 4. D, villosa. 
Branches closely compacted. Leaves ;4,-;,in., ovate- 
oblong, subacute. Male perianth almost campanulate. 
Scales 8, in distinct pairs .. Be Ate BS BD aaah 
Fruiting specimens of a Drapetes found on Mount Sinclair, Banks Penin- 
sula, have been identified by Dr. Berggren with the Australian and Tasmanian 
D. tasmanica, Hook. f., but I have seen no specimens. According to Bentham, 
it is very close to D. Dieffenbachit, principally differing in the smaller and more 
hairy perianth, the lobes of which are as long as the tube. 
1. D. Dieffenbachii, Hook. in Lond. Jowrn. Bot. ii. (1848) 
497, t. 17.—A small creeping and rooting much-branched plant ; 
stems woody at the base, 3-12in. long; branches stout or slender, 
scarred, ascending at the tips, glabrous or slightly villous with 
short white hairs. Leaves usually close-set and imbricating, but 
sometimes distant on barren shoots, suberect, often incurved at 
the tips, #,—4 1m. long, linear or linear-lingulate, obtuse, concave in 
front, convex on the back, grooved or striate or almost smooth, 
glabrous or nearly so when old, but the upper half of the margins 
and the apex ciliate when young. Flowers small, polygamo- 
dicecious, in 3-8-flowered heads at the tips of the branches, sunk 
amongst the uppermost leaves. Male perianth about 4in. long, 
funnel-shaped, the lobes about + the length of the tube. Scales 
very variable, sometimes a single entire one at the base of each 
lobe, but more often the scale is 2-lobed or divided to the base 
into 2 distinct but closely approximate scales. Stamens with long 
slender filaments, the anthers almost reaching the top of the lobes. 
Ovary and style very small, abortive. Female (or hermaphrodite) 
perianth smaller and broader. Anthers much smaller, usually 
