Hedycarya. | MONIMIACEAE. 457 
Family XLII. MONIMIACEAE. 
Trees or shrubs, often aromatic. Leaves opposite, rarely alternate, 
simple ; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, 
usually in short cymes or racemes. Perianth inferior, globose, hemispherical 
or subcampanulate, limb 4-15-toothed. . Stamens usually indefinite, in one 
or many series on a dise lining the perianth-tube, all fertile or some reduced 
to staminodia; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, opening by slits or 
valves. Carpels usually many, rarely solitary, free, sessile on the base or 
sides of the perianth-tube, 1-celled; style long or short ; stigma small ; 
ovule solitary, erect or pendulous. Fruit of several (rarely only one) 
drupes or achenes, resting on the expanded receptacle or enclosed within 
the enlarged perianth. Seed solitary, testa membranous; albumen fleshy ; 
embryo variable, radicle inferior or superior. 
A small family, best represented in the southern tropics, and largely added to of 
late years in the oceanic islands of the Pacific; also well distributed in Madagascar 
and South America. Genera about 30; species probably over 250. Of the 2 New 
Zealand genera, Hedycarya is found in Australia and the Pacific islands, while Laurela 
is confined to South America and New Zealand. 
Anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Ovule pendulous. Drupes 
stipitate .. 6 sth i AS ay Ls 
Anthers opening by ascending valves. Ovule erect. Achenes with 
plumose styles My me Fr Ae 4 .. 2. LAURELIA. 
1. HEDYCARYA. 
1. HEDYCARYA Forst. 1776. 
Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed. Flowers 
dioecious, in axillary cymes or racemes. Male flowers: Perianth broad, 
cup-shaped; segments 5-10, inflexed, more or less connate at the base. 
Stamens numerous, covering almost the whole of the disc; filaments very 
short or almost wanting; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by introrse or lateral 
slits. Female flowers: Perianth similar to that of the males, but rather 
smaller. Staminodia wanting. Carpels numerous, covering the whole disc, 
sessile, terminated by a thick conical style; ovule pendulous, anatropous. 
Fruit of few or several drupes crowded on the top of the disc-shaped recep- 
tacle. Seed pendulous; albumen copious; embryo axile, radicle superior. 
A genus of 8 or 10 species, one of which is endemic in New Zealand, and another 
in Australia, the remainder being natives of New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga. 
1. H. arborea Porst. Char. Gen. (1776) 128, t. 64.—A small tree 20-40 ft. 
high with a trunk 9-20in. diam. or more; bark dark-brown; branches 
ascending, pubescent at the tips. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 2-5 in. long 
including the petiole, linear-oblong to obovate-oblong or obovate, acute 
or obtuse, distantly coarsely serrate or rarely entire, coriaceous, dark-green 
above, paler beneath, glabrous or more or less pubescent, especially on the 
petiole and midrib beneath. Racemes axillary, often corymbosely branched, 
shorter than the leaves; pedicels variable in length, pubescent. Male 
perianth 3-$ In. diam., saucer-shaped, pubescent. Stamens very numerous ; 
anthers sessile, pubescent along the back. Female perianth lin. across. 
Carpels 8-20. Drupes 4-10, crowded, stipitate, in. long, oblong, obtuse, 
bright-red, succulent; endocarp hard, crustaceous.—Cheesem. Man. N.Z. 
Fl. (1906) 599; Jl. N.Z. Fl. i (1914) t. 167. HH. dentata Forst. f. Prodr. 
yee 379 ; 7A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 354; A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) 
