Stackhousee. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 47 
dehiscentes. Discus carnosus, pateriformis, basin ovarii cingens, margine libero subintegro. Stylus brevis; 
stigmate 3-lobo. Capsula 3-locularis; loculis 1-spermis. 
A curious genus, containing a few species of almost leafless spinous shrubs, hitherto found only in extra-tropical 
South America, the Gallapago Islands, New Zealand, Australia, and Tasmania. The New Zealand species only 
differs from the Tasmanian in wanting petals, which is in this order a very trifling character, and would not be con- 
sidered of specific importance were it observed in Tasmanian specimens. The D. australis forms a thorny, smooth, 
tortuous bush, 2-4 feet high, with stiff opposite spreading branches, of which the ultimate are reduced to straight, 
woody, very sharp spines, 1-2 inches long. eaves small, fascicled at the axils of the spines (absent in old plants), 
oblong-obovate or linear-oblong, blunt or retuse, smooth or pubescent, entire (in young plants serrulate?), 3-3 inch 
long. Flowers white, fascicled, on very short axillary peduncles, smooth or pubescent. Calyx with a short broadly 
obconie tube, and four to five reflexed broadly-ovate subacute lobes. Petals none in the New Zealand plant, like 
small concave scales in the Tasmanian. Stamens alternate with the lobes of the calyx. Disc broad, occupying the 
base of the flower, with a narrow upturned margin. Ovary three-celled, with one short style and three stigmata. 
Capsule size of a pepper-corn, smooth, surrounded at the base by the remains of the calyx, three-lobed, three-celled ; 
cells one-seeded ; seed with a pale brown shining testa. (Name from Šcoxos, a disc, from the broad disc in which the 
ovarium is seated.) 
1. Discaria australis, Hook. Bot. Misc. v. 1. p. 157. Colletia pubescens, Brongn. in Ann. Sc. Nat. 
v. 10. p. 366. 
Var. B. apetala ; floribus apetalis. D. Toumatou, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, p. 29. t. 29. 
Haz. Var. 8. Northern and Middle Islands. East coast and interior, Colenso. Akaroa, Raoul. Nat. 
name, * Toumatou," Raoul. (Cultivated in England.) 
In Australia this plant is found from the latitude of Sydney to that of Hobart Town. M. Raoul observes, that 
the spines, made into a kind of comb, are used in the operation for tattooing with charcoal. 
Nar. Orv. XXII. STACKHOUSE, Br. 
Gen. I. STACKHOUSEA, Smith. 
Calycis tubus ventricosus; limbus 5-partitus. Petala 5, erecta, linearia, soluta v. in tubum coalita, 
apicibus patentibus. Stamina 5, calyce inserta; filamentis filiformibus, 2 alternis longioribus. Ovarium 
3-5-lobum, 3-5-loculare; ovulis loculis erectis, solitariis. Sty/i 5, v. in unum apice 3-5-fidum coaliti. 
Fructus 8-5-coccus; coccis crustaceis, l-spermis, indehiscentibus; embryone in axi albuminis carnosi 
orthotropo ; radicula infera. 
The only New Zealand species is a minute slender herb, 1-2 inches high, with filiform, sparingly divided, erect 
or procumbent stems, and alternate, scattered, linear or obovate, sharp, fleshy leaves, 2—3 lines long. Flowers very 
minute, solitary or few together towards the tops of the stems. Calyx five-lobed, with spreading segments. Corolla 
tubular, of five linear erect petals, free above and below, united down the middle, their tips spreading. Stamens 
five; filaments unequal, slender; anthers hairy. Ovary three-lobed, lobes one-celled, with one erect ovule; style 
solitary, erect, three-cleft. Fruit of three generally unequal nuts, one or two being abortive, large for the size of 
the plant, hard, indehiscent, attached to a central column, from which they break away; seed erect.—This Natural 
Order has hitherto been supposed to be exclusively confined to Australia, where there are two genera and about a 
dozen species, all much larger herbs than the New Zealand ones. (Name in honour of J. Stackhouse, an English 
botanist and author, especially eminent for his knowledge of Seaweeds.) 
1. Stackhousia minima, Hook. fil.; pusilla, glaberrima, caule filiformi parce diviso, foliis linearibus 
