Platk ]:3:i.- SIDEKOXYLON COSTATUM. 



Family SAPOTACE.E.] j^Gen^s SIDEROXYLON, Linn. 



Sideroxylon costatum, /'. Miwll. Frrsi Census Austral. PL 92 ; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Ft. 435. 



The tawaapou which is the name applied by the Maoris to the subject 

 ot this plate, was ftrst collected by Richard Cunningham in the year 1833 on 

 the coast opposite to the Cavallos Islands, between the Bay of Islands and 

 Whangarei. In 1836 Mr. Colenso gathered it at the entrance to Whangarei 

 Harbour, a, loca ity where it still exists ; and in 1841 he also observed it on 

 the high south headlands of Whangaruru Bay." Since that time it has 

 been recorded from numerous localities on the eastern side of the North 

 Island, but always in small quantity, and never far from the coast It 

 occurs on several oi the headlands in the North Cape district ; in one or two 

 stations on the coast-line between Mongonui and Wliangaroa ; between Whangaroa 

 and the Bay of Islands ; at Cape Brett, Whangaruru Harbour, and Whangarei 

 Heads ; on the Poor Knights Islands, the Hen and Chickens, the Great and Little 

 Barrier Islands, and Kawau Island. In the Hauraki Gulf a single small grove 

 occurs on Motutapu Island, and several on Waiheke Island. It has been observed 

 on Cape Colvi le, and on Cuvier Island, and probably also exists on the islands in 

 the Bay oi Plenty, which have never yet been botanically explored. It attains 

 Its southern limit at Tolaga Bay, in the East Cape district, where a single tree <^rows 

 not iar troni a spring, which according to tradition was used by Cook's sailors when 

 he visited the locality m 1769. On the western coast of the North Island onlv two 

 localities are known-near Maunganui Bluff, between the Hokianga and Kaipara 

 Harbours: and the strip of rocky coast just to the north of the Mamikau 

 Harbour. 



S. costatum is a handsome closely branched tree 25 ft. to 4.5 ft high rarelv 

 more, with a trunk 1 ft. to 3 ft. in diameter. The branchlets and petioles are more 

 or less lactescent, and the leaves are marked with numerous closely placed parallel 

 veins running straight from the midrib to the margin. The flowers are solitary 

 or two together in the axils of the leaves, and are succeeded by large oblong or 

 obovoid berries sometimes over an inch in length. Usually these have two or 

 three bony seeds, but sometimes the seeds are reduced to one, and occasionally 

 there are as many as four. According to Mr. Colenso, the seeds were formerly 

 used by the Maoris as beads for necklaces— no doubt from their hard, smooth and 

 polished surface. ' 



M .^n t""',' ^^^*' ^^^^™«d *^at our New Zealand plant is identical with the 

 JNorfdk Island S costatum. But as far back as 1875 this was questioned by the 

 late Bavon Mueller, who proposed the name of Achras novo-zdandicum for the 

 New Zealand form At my request Mr. W. B. Hemsley has compared specimens 

 from the two localities, and reported (" Kew Bulletin," 1908, 459)- " Comparin*^ 

 the Norfolk Island specimens with those from New Zealand, I think Mueller wal 

 right. The leaves of the Norfolk Island plant are, on the whole, larger thicker 

 more tapering towards the base, and the petioles are longer. The flowers are 

 usually in pairs in typical A. costnta, and solitary in the New Zealand specimens 

 we have seen. ' If the correctness of this view is established, our plant will in 

 future bear the name of S. novo-zelandicum, Hemsl. 



u A^^'^'cM \'^'^' ^''^^'''^y^^'l' <^<>si«t"'"- 'li'iwii from specimens coUected on the Little Barrier Island 

 by Miss t,hakespear. Fig. 1 flower with a 5-lobed corolla (x 4) ; 2, centrally affixed hairs (x 12) ■ 

 3, corolla laid open x 4) ; 4 anther (x 8) ; 5, ovary (x 5) ; 6, longitudinal section of ovary (x 5 '■ 

 >, flower, with a 4-lobed corolla (x 4) ; 8, seed (x 2) ; 9, section of same, showing embivo (x 2) ' 



