é i 
ASCARINA LUCIDA, Hook. f. 
THE HUTU. 
Oxrper—CHLORANTHACEA?, 
(Plate CXXIX.) 
ASCARINA LUCIDA is the hutu of the Maoris, according to Mr. Buchanan, F.L.S.; 
but I believe the name is sometimes applied to the tooth-leaved beech (Fagus 
fusca). Although widely distributed through the colony, it is remarkably local, 
and has been collected by very few New Zealand botanists. 
It forms an evergreen shrub or tree, roft. to 25ft. high, with a trunk 6in. 
to 8in. in diameter, and presents an attractive appearance from the contrast 
afforded by its dark or bronzed leaves with the grooved blackish-purple branch- 
lets. The leaves are opposite, and, including the leaf-stalks, from tin. to 3in. 
long, less than jin. wide, narrowed at both ends, acute at the apex, smooth, and 
with the margins cut into rather coarse teeth: the leaf-stalks are connected on 
each side of the stem by curious stipules, which develop three short acute teeth, 
as shown in Fig. 6 (Pl. CXXIX.). The male and female towers are produced 
on separate trees, and are without calyx or corolla: they are arranged in panicles 
springing from the axils of the leaves: each male flower consists of a single 
anther destitute of a filament, and opening by slits in the sides; it is seated in 
the axil of a small bract. The female flower consists of a single ovary inserted 
in the axil of a small bract, and with a short obtuse sessile stigma. The fruit 
has an outer pulpy layer, and contains a single seed. Each branch of the 
inflorescence, whether male or female, forms a small spike, from 3in. to 14in. 
long—the male being smaller and less branched than those of the female. 
Specimens from the Kermadec Islands have longer and larger leaves than those 
from other localities, and were formerly considered to belong to a distinct species, 
which was named A. lanceolata. Leaves from different localities vary much in. 
shape, size, and especially in the teeth and apex, both of which may be acute or 
obtuse. 
PROPERTIES AND UsEs. 
The wood of Ascarina lucida is of a reddish-brown when seasoned, straight- 
grained, tough, and strong: figured specimens are occasionally met with: it 
appears to be of small economic value, but, from its ornamental appearance, 
the tree will doubtless prove useful to the cultivator. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS. 
Ascarina is a small genus comprising three or, possibly, four species, dis- 
tributed through various Pacific Islands, New Caledonia, and New Zealand. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE SPECIES. 
Ascarina lucida extends to. New Caledonia, the Fiji Islands, and Samoa. 
In the colony it is chiefly confined to littoral situations, and is most plentiful 
on the western side of the North and South Islands. It is plentiful on the 
Kermadec Islands, and has been recorded from Ahipara, Hokianga, Whangaroa, 
68 
