MYRTACE^E. 



565 



A tree, probably of considerable size, glabrous throughout; the 

 branchlets somewhat angled. Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, sometimes 

 rhomboid-ovate, coriaceous, rather dull, acutish, either rounded, obtuse, 

 or acute at the base, obscurely punctate, copiously feather-veined; 

 the veins oblique, very slender but rather conspicuous, equally so on 

 both sides, sparsely branched, connected by minute reticulations, 

 terminating in an inframarginal vein : 'petioles elongated, sometimes 

 almost as long as the blade, commonly half or one-third its length. 

 Cymes terminal, usually geminate, subsessile, many-flowered, crowded, 

 evolved from a large scaly bud, the scales of which remain persistent 

 for some time, as ovate or oblong pointed bracts, of a coriaceo-char- 

 taceous texture, half an inch long; the pedicels (li to 2, or in fruit 3 

 lines long) subtended by similar but smaller ovate-lanceolate bractlets, 

 which are early deciduous, as in the other species. Flowers rather 

 larger than in the largest-flowered forms of if. polymorpha; the calyx 

 nearly similar, glabrous or barely puberulent. Petals and stamens 

 apparently pale or flesh-colour. Ovary three-celled, the glabrous 

 summit free barely to the middle. Capsule nearly included in the 

 turbinate tube of the calyx (of which the spreading lobes are persis- 

 tent), free to the middle, adnate below, three-valved, many-seeded. 

 Seeds fusiform-subulate, not much pointed. 



The characters of this species would appear to be amply sufficient : 

 but forms may occur between it and M. polymorpha var. e. The 

 flowering specimen figured is from the collection of Mr. Seemann. 



Plate 70, B. — Metrosideros Macropus : branches in flower and 

 fruit. Fig. 1. Vertical section of a flower. 2. Ovary, transversely 

 divided. 3. Capsule, dehiscent in the calyx. 4. Seeds. 5. Embryo. 

 — The details magnified. 



19. KUNZEA, Reichenb. 

 1. Kunzea corifolia, Reichenb. 



Kunzea corifolia, Reichenb. Consp. Reg. Veg. p. 175 ; Schauer, in PI. Preiss. 1, p. 124. 

 Metrosideros corifolia, Vent. Hort. Malm. t. 46 ; DC. Prodr. 3, p. 225. 



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