8 University of California Publications in Botany. [VOL. 4 



folium to produce yellow flowers, he has noted this variation in 

 other dark-flowered species. He has, therefore, no hesitancy in 

 referring our yellow-flowered form to P. tenuifolium. 



2. P. crassifolium Soland. KARO. 



A tall shrub or small tree, 15 to 30 ft. high, with erect branches: bark 

 dark brown or black: branchlets, petioles, lower surface of leaves, inflores- 

 cence, and ovaries all densely clothed with a white or buff downy pubes- 

 cence: leaves 2 to 3 in. long, narrow-obovate or oblong, obtuse, much 

 narrowed to the short stout petiole, very leathery, dark green and shining 

 above, the margins recurved: flowers in clusters terminating the branch- 

 lets: petals % in. long including the recurved tips, nearly black: fruiting 

 peduncle stout, recurved: mature capsule subglobose, % to l 1 ^ in. long, 

 short-hairy, with very thick woody valves. New Zealand. Illustrations: 

 Bot. Mag., pi. 5978 (wrongly colored) ; Kirk, Forest Fl. N. Z., pi. 14; Gard. 

 Chron., ser. 3, xxx, fig. 130. 



Too coarse and rigid for ordinary yard planting unless fre- 

 quently pruned back, but with care it may be made to assume 

 a rounded, bushy form which is very pleasing. Suitable for 

 windbreaks and shelter near the sea. In New Zealand (where 

 a yellow-flowered form occurs) it is said to resist the fiercest 

 gales and to grow even where washed by salt spray. The wood 

 is white and tough, used for inlaid work, and is difficult of 

 combustion. 



3. P. Ralphii T. Kirk. 



A loosely branched shrub 8 to 15 ft. high: leaves spreading, 2 to 5 

 in. long, oblong or oblong-obovate, the margins not recurved: petioles 

 and peduncles rather slender: capsule % in. long, broadly ovoid, pubes- 

 cent. New Zealand. Illustration: Gard. Chron., xxvi, fig. 72 (probably 

 this). 



Rare in cultivation. I have seen one specimen on the Hale 

 grounds, Santa Barbara, imported through the Brisbane Botanic 

 Gardens. It is more thrifty and apparently of better habit than 

 P. crassifolium. P. Ralphii differs from that species in that 

 "the leaves are much larger, oblong, not gradually narrowed 

 into the petiole, and the margins are flat, not recurved, while 

 the capsules are much smaller" (Cheeseman). The Santa Bar- 

 bara plant bears out this statement except that the leaves are 

 narrowed to the petiole. 



