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METROSIDEROS TOMENTOSA. 939 
by a surveyor and by a Native that one or two trees are to be found on a point 
between Takaka mud-flats and Collingwood, but unhappily I have not been 
able to obtain confirmation of either statement. Wood sections sent from the 
first-named locality certainly belong to Metrosideros robusta. As the statements 
were made on apparently good authority, I am unable to consider them disproved 
by the small amount of negative evidence obtained, although they cannot be 
accepted in the absence of direct evidence in their favour. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Metrosideros tomentosa, A. Cunn. 
A. Richard, ‘‘ Flora de la Nouvelle-Zélande,”’ t. 37. 
A tree, 30ft. to 7oft. high, with a short trunk and massive spreading arms. 
Branchlets stout, tomentose. Leaves decussate, lin. to nearly 4in. long, shortly 
petioled, narrow-lanceolate, oblong or broadly oblong, usually narrowed to the 
apex, rounded at the base, margins often recurved, clothed with white appressed 
tomentum beneath, or, rarely, glabrous. Flowers arranged in threes, forming 
broad terminal cymes; pedicels stout, and, with the calyx, clothed with dense 
white tomentum. Calyx superior, funnel-shaped, with five short triangular lobes ; 
petals, five, pubescent on the outer surface. Stamens numerous, filaments fully 
tin. long; ovary three-celled, adnate with the lower part of the calyx-tube ; style 
stout, longer than the stamens. Fruit, a woody capsule, girt about the middle 
by the calyx-tube. 
EXPLANATION oF Pirate CXVIII. 
Metrosideros tomentosa, A. Cunn. Flowering specimen, natural size. 
1. Flower. 2. Longitudinal section of a flower, slightly reduced. 3. Petal, 
magnified. 4. Capsule. 5. Capsule dehiscing. Both slightly reduced. 
6. Transverse section of capsule, natural size. 7. Seed, magnified. 
