104 The leading Physiognomie Plants and their Growth-forms. 
however is reddish on the twigs. In general appearance the tree much re- 
sembles Pittosporum tenuifolium, already described, but the leaves are crinkled 
and their general tint is reddish-brown. They are more or less oblong, 2.5—5 cm 
- long, dotted with round pellucid glands and have strongly undulate margins. 
The flowers are dioecious, very small and crowded in fascicles on the naked 
stems below the leaves. The fruit is small, globose and black. 
The species is endemic and occurs from sea-level to an altitude of about 
900 m. 
g. The species of Coprosma. 
The genus Coprosma plays an important part in the physiognomy of the 
vegetation throughout almost the whole New Zealand botanical region at nearly 
all altitudes and in ‘all classes of formations from indeed those of rock to 
swamp. It may therefore be guessed that the species will exhibit much ep- 
harmonic variation, although this cannot, at the present time, be always asso- 
ciated with the environment-of the species, but is to be traced rather to former 
climatic or edaphic conditions. -Considering now only the lowland and mon- 
tane species, and putting aside the turf-forming class, there are two principal 
ecological categories‘), viz — ı. Tall shrubs, or low trees, of an upright habit 
with fair-sized leaves, and 2. Smaller shrubs of dense growth made up of 
many interlacing twiggy branches bearing small leaves. To the former belong: 
— (C. grandifolia, C. lucida, C. robusta, C. arborea, C. tenuifolia, C. Cun- 
ninghamii and C. foetidissima and to the latter the extreme divaricating forms 
such as C. rhamnoides, and even those taller and more open, as that most 
common plant of farcat undergrowth, C. rotundifolia. 
The flowers of all the species are dioecious, small, rather inconspicuous 
but produced in abundance and are specially adapted for wind-pollination. 
Sometime the calyx is wanting, its place being supplied by connate bracts 
which closely resemble a calyx. The drupes, containing two plano-convex 
pyrenes, are generally most abundant, and, when transparent or brightly coloured a 
render the shrub both beautiful and conspicuous. 
h. Rhopalostylis sapıda (Sol.) Wendl. and Drude (Palmae), Nikau, Nikau palm. 
The nikau is a tuft-tree 1.8—7.5 m high with a smooth, greenish, slender 
trunk 14—22 cm in diam. marked with pale-coloured rings of old leaf-scars 
at distances apart of about 2.5 cm and bearing near its apex a crown of large 
pinnate leaves 1.2—2.4 m long, which radiate outwards and upwards at a 
„variable angle. The leaves are a moderately dark shining green, the midrib r | 
is very thick and also green, but its secondary branches are yellow. The 
leaf-bases form a cup’which frequently gets filled with dead leaves &c. to a 
depth of 30 cm, or more. Adventitious roots of a red colour pass off from 
near the base of the trunk at a distance of 30 cm from the are: If the = 
En ae 
z ı) There is also the rag a low, nes -branched. shrubs e. one ce. Colensci : 
en ee ST ars 
EEE ST TREE 
