220 XXXV. AEALIACEAE. {Schefflera. 



5, short, connate at base, tips spreading. Berry ovoid or oblong, 5-co-celled. 

 Seeds compressed. Small trees, with stout resinous branches and very large 

 alternate coriaceous leaves. Flowers in terminal panicles, sessile. 



A small genus, comprising aboub 16 species, occurring in islands of the South Pacific, 10 in 

 New Caledonia, 2 in Norfolk Island. The New Zealand species is endemic. 



1. M. Sinclairii, Seeman in Bonplandia x. (1862) 295. A handsome 

 dioecious tree, 12ft.— 25ft. high, with stout brittle branches. Leaves with stout 

 marginal nerves, alternate, on stout petioles 4in.— 14in. long ; blades 9in.— 20in. 

 long, 4in.— lOin. broad, very coriaceous, shining, obovate-oblong or oblong, 

 sometimes contracted below the middle ; veins prominent ; margin slightly 

 waved. Panicles terminal, erect ; branches stout, jointed to the rhachis. 

 Male flowers in fours with an ovate bract at the base of each fascicle, and 

 a pair of bractlets at the base of each flower ; petals ligulate, flexuous ; sta- 

 mens 4, inserted beneath a corrugated glandular disk ; filaments slender, exserted. 

 Female flowers solitary or crowded ; petals 5—6, alternating with staminodia ; 

 ovary 3— 6-celled ; styles 3—6, tips spreading, short. Fruit, black, shining, fin. 

 long, oblong, 3— 6-celled, each cell containing 1 compressed bony seed. — Hook, f., 

 Handbk. 104; T. Kirk, Forest Fl. N.Z. t. 131. Botryodendrum Sinclairii, 

 Hook, f., Fl. N.Z. i. 97. 



THREE KINGS Islands, Chees.eman. Taranga Islands, near Whangarei, T. E. Reported 

 from the Poor Knights Island. Puka. Dec. 



One of the rarest trees in the world. 



5. SCHEFFLERA, Porst. 



Flowers polygamous, not jointed to the pedicel. Calyx-limb minutely 

 5-toothed. Petals 5, valvate. Stamens 5. Disk with a waved margin. Ovary 

 5-10-celled. Styles 5—10, connate to above their middle ; tips spreading, free. 

 Fruit nearly globose, fleshy, 5-10-celled, 5-10-ribbed. Pyrenes 5-10, com- 

 pressed. Shrubs or small trees, with digitate leaves and sheathing petioles. 

 Umbels few-flowered, arranged in paniculate racemes. 



A genus of about 20 species, chiefly natives of New Caledonia, with one from Lifo, one from 

 Fiji, and the present endemic in New Zealand. 



1. S. digitata, Forst., Char. Gen. 46, t. 23. A shrub or small tree, 

 10ft.-20ft. high or more. Branches stout. Leaves 5-10-foliolate ; petioles 

 4in.-7in. long, sheathing at the base; leaflets petioled, membranous, 3in.-7in. 

 long, oblong-lanceolate, shortly acuminate, finely serrate. Umbels 3-10-flowered, 

 iin.-4in. in diameter, racemose. Peduncles iin. long. Pedicels iin. long. 

 Flowers small. Calyx-teeth obsolete. Fruit purplish-black, Jjin.-J^yin. in 

 diameter, furrowed when dry. In the young state the leaflets are often irre- 

 gularly pinnatifid or partite.— Hook, f., Handbk. 103. S. Cunninghamii, Miq. 

 in Linnaea xviii. (1841) 89. Aralia Schefflera, Spreng., PL Pugill. i. 28; DC, 

 Prod. iv. 258; A. Rich., Fl. N.Z. 283; A. Cunn., Precurs. u. 513; Hook, f.'. 



