COPROSMA LINARITFOLIA, Hook. tf. 
THE YELLOW-WOOD. 
OrpdDER—RUBIACE. 
(Plate XCV.) 
Avraoucn the yellow-wood is widely distributed, its Native name is unknown to 
settlers, even to those versed in Maori lore. In Otago it is known as *t miki- 
miki,’’ but this name is applied to C. fatidisstma on Stewart Island: by woodmen 
it is frequently termed “‘ mingi,”” which is, Mr. Colenso informs me, the Native 
name of Cyathodes acerosa: the same name is applied to Coprosma Colensoi, but | 
am unable to say whether correctly or not. In Otago, where this species attains 
its largest dimensions, it is known as “ yellow-wood”’ or “yellow karamu’”’ on 
account of the colour of the wood. 
Coprosma linarifolia varies from a low-growing shrub branched from the 
base to a small tree 25ft. high, with a trunk sometimes gin. in diameter, but 
usually smaller. The leaves are opposite, rarely exceeding r4in. in length, very 
narrow, smooth, and entire, carried on very short leaf-stalks: the stipules are 
united, very long, and sheathing, giving the branchlets a peculiar jointed ap- 
pearance. The male and female Howers are produced at the tips of branchlets 
on different plants: the former are collected into small heads or fascicles, usually 
containing three or four flowers, but are sometimes two- or five- or even six- 
flowered: each fascicle has a kind of involucral cup at its base, but the flowers 
are destitute of a calyx: the corolla is bell-shaped, four- or five-lobed, with the 
tips of the lobes slightly curved outwards: the stamens are four or five in number, 
with slender filaments. The female flowers are solitary and seated in an invo- 
lacral cup resembling that of the male fascicle, with two or, rarely, four lobes, 
which are narrow and obtuse: the calyx is unusually developed, having four 
narrow obtuse lobes longer than the cup. ‘The ovary is two-celled, tipped with 
two stigmas. The fruit is a two-seeded berry, at first whitish and translucent, 
becoming black when fully ripe, and crowned with the remains of the calyx. 
It resembles some states of C. propingua, A. Cunn., but is easily recognised 
by its sheathing stipules, the large calyx of the female flower, and the fruit, which 
always bears the remains of the calyx. 
PROPERTIES AND USES. 
The wood is smooth, even, and compact: it is of a deep-yellow colour, 
which renders it useful to the cabinetmaker for inlaying and other purposes. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS. 
See under Coprosma Baueriana, p. 109, ante. 
DistTRinuTION OF THE SPECIES. 
Coprosma linarifolia is plentiful in mountainous districts from the upper part 
of the Thames Valley to Southland, but is somewhat local in the North Island. 
