Australina. | URTICACEAE. 385 
exserted. Female flowers solitary or 2-3 together, each on a very short 
peduncle or sessile, in the same or in a different axil to the male inflores- 
cence. Perianth very minute, flask-shaped, 2-3-toothed at the constricted 
mouth. Style exserted, villous —Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 252 ; 
Benth. Fl. Austral. vi (1873) 189; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 639. 
A. novae-zealandiae Hook. jf. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 226. A. hispidula Col. 
m Trans. N.Z. Inst. xviii (1886) 266. 
NortH ann SoutH Isnanps: Dark shaded woods from Hokianga and the Bay 
of Islands to Foveaux Strait, but often very local. Sea-level to 1000 it. 
Family XXIX. PROTEACEAE. 
Shrubs or trees, rarely herbs. Leaves usually alternate, very rarely 
opposite or whorled, generally hard and coriaceous, entire or toothed or 
variously divided; stipules wanting. Flowers usually hermaphrodite, 
inflorescence various. Perianth inferior, regular or irregular; segments 4, 
valvate, at first cohering into a cylindric tube, at length separating and 
becoming revolute. Stamens 4, inserted ‘on ‘the perianth-segments and 
opposite to them ; filaments short; anthers erect, adnate, 2-celled, introrse. 
Hypogynous glands 4, alternating with the stamens. Ovary superior, 
1-celled, often oblique; style terminal, variously thickened and enlarged 
at the top ; stigma terminal or lateral ; ovules solitary or geminate or many. 
Fruit either an indehiscent nut or drupe, or a dehiscent coriaceous or woody 
follicle, more rarely a 2-valved capsule. Seeds exalbuminous; embryo 
straight, with fleshy cotyledons, radicle inferior. 
A large and well-marked family, chiefly found in Australia and South Africa, but 
extending to the Pacific islands and tropical Asia on the one side and South America 
on the other; absent in Europe, North Asia, and North America. Genera about 50 ; 
species estimated at 950. Several species are cultivated for ornamental purposes, 
but few possess any useful propertics. Of the two indigenous genera, Knightia has 
two species in New Caledonia, while Persoonia is largely developed in Australia. The 
meagre representation of the family in New Zealand, compared with its abundance in 
Australia, is a very curious and almost inexplicable feature of the flora. 
Small spreading tree. Leaves entire. Fruit fleshy .. .. 1. PERsoonta, 
Tail fastigiate tree. Leaves serrate. Fruit a woody follicle .. 2. Kyurenrta. 
1. PERSOONIA Smith. 1798. Li. low, 
Shrubs or small trees. Leaves entire, alternate or sometimes almost 
whorled. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, yellowish or white, solitary and 
axillary, or in axillary or terminal racemes. Perianth regular, constricted 
above the base or cylindrical; segments ultimately separating to the 
base or nearly so, upper portion revolute. Stamens affixed at or below 
the middle of the perianth-segments ; filaments short; anthers usually all 
_ perfect, oblong or linear. Hypogynous scales 4, small. Ovary stipitate ; 
style short and thick, or elongated and filiform ; stigma terminal; ovules 
2 or rarely 1, orthotropous, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit a 
drupe, either 1-celled and 1-seeded, or obliquely 2-celled and 2-seeded ; 
exocarp more or less succulent; endocarp thick and hard. 
Species about 60, all confined to Australia except the present one, which is 
endemic in the North Island of New Zealand. 
13—Fl. 
