Dltscaria.] XIX. EHAMNEAE. 93 



2. DISCARIA, Hook. 

 Flowers hermaphrodite. Calyx membrauouSj campanulate, free or adnata 

 with the base of the ovary; lobes 4— 5, recurved. Petals 4—5 or 0. Stamens 

 4—5 ; filam^ents short. Disk annular, adnate with the base of the calyx-tube. 

 Ovary more or less sunk in the disk or free, 3-lobed, 3-celled ; style divided 

 near the apex ; stigmas 3, capitate or clavate. Fruit a drupe, finally coria- 

 ceous or capsular, the endocarp separating into three 2-valved crustaceous cocci. 

 Seeds plano-convex; testa coriaceous; endosperm fleshy. Much-branched 

 rigid shrubs or small trees, with opposite green branches, articulate at the 

 nodes, often spinous. Leaves opposite or fascicled or 0. Stipules small. 

 Flowers in axillary fascicles or solitary. 



Speciks, about 14, chiefly in extra-tropical and alpine South America ; 2 species in tbe Gala- 

 pagos Islands, 1 in Australia, and another in New Zealand. 



Etym. From the Greek, signifying a disk, the ovary being seated in a broad disk. 



1. D. Toumatou, Raoul, Am. Sc. Nat. ii. (1844) 123. A thorny bush 

 or small tree, 1ft.— 30ft. high, usually glabrous. Branches grooved and articu- 

 lated at the nodes ; branchlets reduced to opposite woody spines, liin.— 2in. 

 long. Leaves small, fascicled or solitary in the axils of the spines or below 

 them, iin.— fin. long, shortly petioled, oblong or narrow-obovate-oblong, obtuse 

 or retuse, rarely 0. Flowers in few-flowered fascicles with the leaves. Pedi- 

 cels shorter than the leaves, finely pubescent. Calyx-lobes 4—5, white, reflexed, 

 deciduous. Base of ovary adnate with the disk, 3-lobed. Disk broad, with a 

 thickened margin. — Hook, f., Fl. Tasm. i. 69; Handbk. 44; Benth., Fl. Austr. 

 i. 445 ; T. Kirk., Forest Fl. N.Z. t. 136. D. amtralis, Hook., var. apetala, 

 Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 47. 



NOETH and SOUTH Islands : south head of Manukau Harbour to Southland. Sea-level to 

 -?,000ft. Tumatakum. Dec., Jan. 



Scarcely differs from D. australis. Hook., except in the absence of petals. 



Oedbk— * AMPELIDEAE. 



Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual. Calyx minute, i-o-toothed or entire. 

 Petals 4—5, free or united, valvate in the bud, inserted at the outer base of the disk, 

 united by their tips. Stamens opposite the petals, 4 or 5, free or slightly coherent. 

 Disk adnate to the ovary or free. Ovary free, usually 2-ceiled with two erect ovules 

 in each cell, rarely 3-6-eelled with one anatropous ovule in each cell ; style short or 

 ; stigma capitate. Fruit a berry. Seeds 1-6 ; testa hard or bony ; endosperm 

 scanty ; radicle short, inferior. Woody climbers or erect shrubs. Leaves simple or 

 compound, usually alternate, opposite the peduncles, which are often changed into 

 simple or branched tendrils. Stipule petiolar. Flowers greenish, in paniculate 

 cymes or racemes. 



• VITIS, Tourn. 



Flowers hermaphrodite, dioecious or polygamous. Petals calyptrate, falling 

 away from the receptacle before separating from each other. Disk 5-lobed. Ovar\- 

 2-ceiled. Fruit a berry. Seeds pyriform. Woody climbers, with tendrils opposite 

 the leaves. Flowers in simple or compound thyrsoid panicles. 



