68 XII. PITTOSPORE^. 



** Anthers ovate or oblong. Berry indehiscmt. Petals erect at the base. 

 PrieHy shrub, with small; leaves and small sessile solitary flowers. Berry 



globular 5- Citeiobatus. 



Undershrubs or twiners. Flowers pedunculate. Berry ovoid or oblong . . 6. Billardieka. 

 **• Anthers linear, or longer than the filaments. Petals spreading from the base, or nearly so. 



Undershrubs or twiners. 

 Fruit dehiscent. Anthers turned to one side, opening in terminal pores . . 7. Cheibantheka. 



^ 1. PITTOSPORUM, Banks. 



(From the gummy matter surrounding the seeds.) 

 Petals usually connivent or cohering in a. tube at their base or above the middle. 

 Anthers ovate-oblong. Ovary sessile or shortly stipitate, incompletely or almost 

 completely 2-celled, or rarely 8 to 5-eelled ; style short. Capsule globose, ovate 

 or obovate, often laterally compressed ; the valves coriaceous or thick and hard, 

 bearing the placentas along their centre. Seeds thick or globular, not winged, 

 often enveloped in a viscous liquor. — Shrubs or trees, glabrous or rarely tomen- 

 tose. Leaves usually evergreen, entire or minutely toothed, the upper ones 

 frequently collected into a false whorl. Flowers not large, axillary or terminal, 

 solitary or in close corymbose panicles. 



A large genus, dispersed over the warmer regions of Africa, Asia, the Pacific islands, and New 

 Zealand. The Australian species are all endemic excepting one which is common to eastern 

 tropical Asia and the eastern Archipelago. 



Flowers numerous, small, in compound terminal corymbs, with the lower 

 branches axillary. 



Leaves ovate-rhomboid, toothed. Sepals obtuse 1. P. rhombifolium. 



Leaves oblanceolate, aristate. Sepals broadly ovate 2. P. setigerum. 



Leaves from obovate to oblong or lanceolate, quite entire. Sepals 



subulate or su-bulate-pointed. Plant glabrous S. P. melanospermum. 



Peduncles all terminal, clustered, short, each bearing a short simple cyme 

 or umbel. 

 Glabrous, or the young shoots and inflorescence very slightly pubescent. 



Flowers about |in. long . 4. P. undulatum. 



Young shoots and inflorescence rusty-tomentose or hirsute 

 Flowers about Jin. Capsule {in., very rough . . . . . 5. P. revolutum. 



Veins of the leaf dark-coloured, 8 to 10 lines . . 6. P. venulosum. 



Flowers 3 to 4 lines. Capsule under Jin. 

 Leaves on long petioles, ovate to oblong-lanceolate. Tomentum 



short and crisp, ferruginous 7. P. ferrugineum. 



Leaves of thin texture, petioles of medium length. Capsule 



velvety 8. P. Wingii. 



Leaves nearly sessile, oblong-laneeolate. Tomentum almost 



hirsute, very dense 9. P. rubiginosum. 



Pedicels axillary, solitary or clustered, l-flowered', the uppermost some- 

 times in a terminal cluster. Leaves glabrous, flat. Flowers yellow 10. P. phillyrceoide!. 



1. P. rhombifolium (form of leaf), A. Cunn. in Hook. Ic. PI. t. 621 ; Benth. 

 Fl. Austr. i. 110. A tree attaining, according to A. Cunningham, 60 to 80ft. , 

 glabrous in all its parts. Leaves rhoniboid-oval or rarely broadly oblong- 

 lanceolate, mostly 3 to 4in. long, coarsely and irregularly toothed from the middle 

 upwards, narrowed into a petiole of J .to lin., coriaceous and shining, but with 

 the pinnate and netted veins prominent on both sides. Flowers white, numerous, 

 and rather small, in a dense terminal compound corymb, the branches sometimes 

 minutely glandular. Sepals . obtuse, rather more than 1 line. Petals oblong, 

 about 3 lines long, spreading from below the middle. Ovary shortly stipitate, 

 the thick placentas nearly meeting, each bearing about 12 to 14 ovules. Capsule 

 more or less obliquely pear-shaped or almost globular, usually about 3 lines long, 

 and ripening 2 or 3 black seeds. 



Hab.: Wide Bay, forests on the Brisbane ; Arauoaria range, between Brisbane and Dawson 

 rivers and edge of the Killarney scrub, near Warwick. 



Wood whitish, close-grained, tough, rather hard, considered suitfiljle foi' carving and engrav- 

 ing. — Bailey's Cat. Ql. Woods No. 8, 



