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TEE ART ALBUM OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 



1. HYMENANTHERA CRASSTFOLTA fSoo/.:, F.J The Thick-leaved Hvmenanthera. 



Specific Chakaoteb. — A small shrub, 2-4 feet high, rigid, 

 stout, tortuous branches, rarely sending out straight shoots. 

 Branchlets, pubescent. Bark, white. Leaves, very variable, 

 thickly coriaceous, common form linear-spathulate, 2-3 inches 

 long, ijut on young shoots often larger, broader, sinuate or 

 toothed ; and in older, shorter, obtuse, veined, when dry. 

 Petioles, short. Stipules very minute and deciduous. Flowers 



very small, solitary or few together, axillary. Pedicels short, 

 stout, curved, with one concave appressed bract. Sepals, or- 

 bicular, erose or ciliolate. Petals, linear-oblong. Anthers 

 recurved, connate into a membranous lobed tube, the lobes 

 ciliolate. Berries i in. diameter, blue-purple. — Handbook of 

 Jfew Zealand Flora, p. IS. 



Description, etc. — This small maritime slii-ul) is found in certain localities in the 

 Northern Island, hut is not common, the only 2^1'ices rejiorted being in the northern 

 portion of the Auckland provmcial district, and again in the Wellington district at Cape 

 Palliser. In the Middle Island it is known only at Nelson. Tlie berries, which are large 

 in propoi'tion to the size of the shrub, are succulent, but not edible. In growth, it is of 

 a tortuoiis habit, rarely sending out straight shoots, and has white bark. The genus is 

 common to a portion of Australia. 



