On the Genus Corynocarpus, Forst., with 
Descriptions of two New Species. 
BY 
W. BOTTING HEMSLEY, F.R.S., F.L.S., 
Keeper of the Herbarium and Library , Royal Botanic Gardens , Kew. 
With Plate XXXVI, and two Figures in the Text. 
Botanical History. 
ORYNOCARPUS was established by the Forsters 
(Char. Gen. PI. Ins. Mar. Austr., p. 33, t. 16) in 1 776, and 
although the description is incomplete, and the figures of the 
parts of the flower inaccurate, there can be no question about 
the tree intended. It was described from specimens collected 
in New Zealand on Cook’s second voyage (1773-75), and the 
perfect fruit seems to have been unknown to the Forsters, or 
they would hardly have given it a name signifying club-fruit 1 . 
But Sir Joseph Banks and Dr. Solander, who were the 
botanists on Cook’s first voyage (1768-71), also brought 
specimens of this tree to England, and it was described and 
figured by them under the ’name of Merretia lucida 2 , though 
not published. The authorities of the Botanical Department 
of the British Museum have obligingly furnished me with 
1 They were evidently unaware, too, that the fruit of Corynocarpus is edible, 
or it would have been included in G. Forster’s * De Plantis Esculentis Insularum 
Oceani Australis.’ 
a In memory of Christopher Merrett, M.D., author of ‘Pinax rerum naturalium 
Britannicarum,’ 1 666. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XVII. No. LXVIII. September, 1903.] 
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