The leading Physiognomie Plants. — Trees. 53 
with lenticels. The head is dense, round and glossy green. The leaves are 
elliptic-oblong or oblong-obovate, 7.5—20 cm long, dark-green, thick, smooth 
and shining. The small flowers are 4 mm in diam., hermaphrodite, greenish 
and borne on much-branched panicles 10-20 cm long. The drupes are more 
than 2.5 cm long, orange-coloured, fleshy and showy. Blooming is from Au- 
0) 
gust to November. 
Fig. 2. Aerial roots of Metrosideros tomentosa deseending and entering the ground. West coast 
of North Auckland district. Photo L. Cockayne. 
The genus was long thought to be endemic and monotypic, but two 
exotic species are now known, one in New Caledonia and the other in the 
New Hebrides. 
The New Zealand species extends from the Kermadec Islands to Banks 
Peninsula on the E. and to S. W. Nelson on the W. of the South Island, but 
as the tree was cultivated by the Maoris, it is not well to make dogmatic statements 
as to its occurring naturally in certain localities. 
6. Metrosideros tomentosa A. Rich. (Myrtac.) Pohutakawa ; Christmas-tree. 
This species has various epharmonic forms which vary from a forest tree 
2ı m high with a trunk 60—g0 cm in diam, to a.small stiff-stemmed shrub 
