Meirosideros.] xxix. myetacbae. 163 



9. M. tomentosa, A. Rich., Fl. N.Z. 336, /. 37. A large shrub or tree, 

 30ft.— 70ft. highj with massive spreading arms and stout tomentose branchlets. 

 Leaves decussate, lin.— 4in. long, shortly petioled, narrow-lanceolate, oblong or 

 broadly oblong, usually narrowed to the apex, rounded at the base, the margins 

 flat or recurved, clothed with white tomentum beneath or rarely glabrous. 

 Flowers in large broad terminal cyraes^ often trichotoraous. Peduncles and 

 pedicels stout, and with the calyx densely tomentose. Calyx-tube broadly 

 obconic ; lobes short, deltoid, persistent. Petals narrow, exceeding the sepals, 

 pubescent on the back. Base of the ovary adnate with the calyx-tube, 3-cened ; 

 style stout, exceeding the stamens. Capsule half-superior, woody, tomentose, 

 3-lobed, and 3-valved to the base, one-half sunk in the turbinate calyx-tube. 

 Seeds erect. — A. Cunn., Precurs. n. 558; Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 68; Handbk. 

 72; T. Kirk, Forest Fl. N.Z. t. 118. M. excelsa, Banks and Sol. MSS. 



NORTH Island : chiefly on maritime cliffs and headlands, from the Three Kings Islands and 

 the North Gape to Poverty Bay, Lake Taupo, and the Mimi Eiver, Taranaki ; Waikaremoana, East 

 Coast, Colenso. On Tarawera Mountain prior to the eruption. 2,300ft. SOUTH Island : Queen 

 Cha,v]otte Sound, Banks a.nd Solander ! Pohutuhawa. Christmas flower. Dec, Jan. 



A magnificent tree. When growing in forests the leaves are nearly glabrous and the cymes 

 very small. It is to be feared that some mistake has been made as to its occurrence in Queen 

 Charlotte Sound. 



10. M, Villosa, Sm. in Trans. Linn. Soc. iii. (1797) 268. A tree, 



40ft.— 60ft. high, extremely variable in stature and in the shape of the leaves. 



Branchlets rather slender, downy or tomentose. Leaves decussate, fin.— Ijin. 



long, shortly petioled, coriaceous, broadly ovate or obovate, rounded at the tip, 



white with appressed tomentum beneath; margins recurved. Flowers in small 



axillary or terminal cymes, the central flowers mostly sessile. Peduncles and 



pedicels downy or woolly. Calyx-tube short, broadly obconic, woolly; lobes 



minute, acute, persistent, black at the tip. Petals pubescent on the outer 



surface, exceeding the sepals. Filaments very slender. Ovary adnate with the 



base of the calyx-tube, 3-celled. Capsule woolly, 3-lobed, 3-valved, sessile in 



the broad calyx-tube, which closely invests its lower half. — M. polymorpha, 



Gaud, in Frey. Voy. Bot. 482, t. 85 ; Hook, f., Handbk. 73 ; T. Kirk, Forest 



Fl. N.Z. t. 119. 



SUNDAY Island, Kermadec Group, ilcGillivray, Cheeseman! Sea-level to the tops of the 

 hills, 1,700ft., according to Mr. Cheeseman, to whom I am indebted for specimens. Also in Lord 

 Howe's Island, New Caledonia, Fiji, and other Polynesian Islands to the Sandwich Islands. Sept., 

 Oct. 



11. M. scandens, Soland. ex Gaertn. Fruct. i. 172, t. 34, /. 10. A 

 climber, clothing the trunks of the loftiest trees, and giving off spreading 

 branches above. Branchlets tomentose or hispid. Leaves distichous, subsessile, 

 about iin. long, orbicular orbicular-ovate or oblong-ovate, obtuse or rarely acute, 

 verv coriaceous, shining, covered with large dotted glands below; petiole and mid- 

 rib pubescent. Flowers in 3-flowered pedunculate cymes, crowded in the upper 

 axils, forming a more or less elongated terminal leafy panicle. Peduncles and 

 pedicels pubescent ; pedicels very short or 0. Calyx broadly turbinate ; lobes 



