42 
XVI. 0LACINEA5. 
[. Pennantia . 
rarely entire, often turning black in drying. Male flowers largest, filaments 
longer than the petals; ovary reduced to a papilla; pedicels jointed be- 
low the calyx. Berries ovoid, black, fleshy, with purple juice, -j in. long. 
Northern Island : chiefly in mountain woods ; more abundant throughout the Middle 
Island, Banks and Solander, etc. Wood used by the natives for kindling fires by friction. 
Development of the fruit very curious, and well worth an attentive study. The only other 
species (P. Endlicheri) is a native of Norfolk Island. 
Order XVII. STACKHOUSIE.E. 
Herbs, perennial-rooted. Leaves narrow, alternate, almost exstipulate. 
Flowers in terminal spikes or racemes, greenish white or yellow, hermaphro- 
dite, regular. — Calyx with a small hemispherical tube, and 5 small imbricate 
lobes. Petals 5, inserted at the edge of a disk which lines the calyx tube, 
erect, linear or spathulate, free or united by their edges above the base only, 
their tips imbricate, reflexed. Stamens 5, free, erect; filaments slender, 2 
shorter than the others. Ovary sessile, free, subglobose, 2-5 -celled and -lobed 
or -parted; styles 2-5, connate or free, stigma simple or 2-5 -lobed ; ovules 
solitary and erect in the cells. Fruit of 2-5 indehiscent, globose, angled 
or winged cocci, attached to a central column. Testa membranous ; albumen 
fleshy ; embryo straight. 
The only genus is abundant in Australia, and contains also a Philippine Island species. 
1. STACKHOUSIA, Smith. 
1. S. minima, HooJc. f. FI. N. Z. i. 47. A minute, slender, glabrous 
herb, with slender, running rhizomes, sending up erect, leafy branches, 1-2 
inches high. Leaves i— j in. long, scattered, linear or obovate, acute, fleshy, 
quite entire. Flowers very minute, in few-flowered spikes. Calyx lobes 5, 
spreading. Petals united at the middle. Anthers pubescent. Ovary 3-lobed ; 
style 3-cleft. Cocci, usually 1 only ripens. 
Northern Island : open downs on the east coast, Colenso. Middle Island : clefts of 
rocks. Ribbon Wood range, Haast. 
Order XVIII. RHAMNEiE. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, stipulate. Flowers 
regular, hermaphrodite. — Calyx superior or inferior, 4 or 5 -toothed or -lobed; 
lobes triangular, valvate, often having a raised ridge down the centre, and an 
incurved thickened tip. Petals 0, or 4 or 5, minute, scale-like, very con- 
cave, placed between the teeth of the calyx, and often smaller than them. 
Stamens 4 or 5, very small, inserted with the petals, opposite to, and often 
hooded by them. Disk hypogynous or epigynous. Ovary superior or in- 
ferior, 3 - celled ; style 1, stigma capitate or 3-fid; ovule solitary and erect 
in each cell. Fruit of 3 cocci, either free and subtended by the calyx, or 
more or less immersed in or adnate to the calyx ; cocci often crustaceous, len- 
ticular, dehiscing down the inner face. Seed erect ; albumen fleshy ; embryo 
large, cotyledons orbicular, radicle straight, terete. 
A large temperate and tropical Order, of which the New Zealand genera are Australian. 
