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Beilschmiedia. | LAURACEAE, 
Family XLII. LAURACEAE. 
Trees or shrubs, often aromatic.  (Cassytha is a leafless parasitic 
climber.) Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, usually simple and entire, 
often gland-dotted ; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or 
unisexual, generally small, usually in axillary cymes or panicles or clusters. 
Perianth inferior, herbaceous or coloured, deeply cut into 4-8 (usually 6) 
imbricate segments. Stamens usually twice the number of the perianth- 
segments, inserted in 2-3 series on the perianth-tube, all fertile or some 
reduced to staminodia ; filaments flattened, naked or provided with 2 glands 
at the base; anther-cells 2-4, opening by upturned valves. Ovary free, 
l-celled ; style simple, terminal; stigma capitate, entire or lobed ; ovule 
solitary, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or berry, rarely dry, tree 
or enclosed in the perianth. Seed solitary, pendulous ; albumen wanting ; 
embryo with large plano-convex cotyledons, radicle minute, superior. 
An important family, having its headquarters in tropical America and Asia, less 
common in tropical Africa or in Australia and the Pacific islands, while few species 
penetrate into either the North or South Temperate Zones. Genera over 40; species 
approaching 1000. The family includes many useful plants, the chief of which are the 
camphor laurel, cinnamon, alligator-pear, sassafras, &c. The timber of not a few species 
is highly valued on account of its toughness and fine and solid grain, The three New 
Zealand genera are all widely diffused in tropical regions. 
Trees. Flowers hermaphrodite, panicled. Three inner anthers 
extrorse. . oh J e ts 4 .. 1. BEILSCHMIEDIA. 
Trees. Flowers dioecious, umbellate; umbels  involucrate. 
Anthers all introrse > ae Ay - .. De Darsawa: 
Leafless parasitic twining herbs b Sy ws .. 93 CASSYTHA, 
1. BEILSCHMIEDIA Nees. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, penninerved. Flowers 
small, hermaphrodite, panicled or fascicled. Perianth-tube short; limb 
with 6 subequal segments. Perfect stamens 9 in 3 series; the 2 outer 
series with introrse anthers and eglandular filaments ; the third series with 
extrorse anthers and filaments 2-glandular at the base; an inner fourth 
series of 3 staminodia present. Ovary not immersed in the perianth-tube, 
the perianth ultimately wholly deciduous. Fruit an oblong.or ovoid or 
slobose berry. | 
A small genus, comprising about 40 species, scattered through tropical Asia and 
Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and tropical America. The two species found in New 
Zealand are endemic. Hooker’s genus Nesodaphne, which was formed for their 
reception, is now merged with Bezlschmiedia. 
Branches stout, clothed with red-brown tomentum. Leaves 
obovate 5. he Ae +4 re’ l. B. Tarairi, 
Branches slender, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves lanceolate .. 2. B. Tawa, 
a= Geprn 
1. B. Tarairi /Benth. and Hook. f. ex T. Kirk Forest Fl. (1889) t. 43.— 
A tall evergreen tree 50-70 ft. high, with a straight erect trunk 13-3 ft. 
diam.; bark dark-brown, smooth and even; young branches, petioles, 
veins of the leaves beneath, upper surface of young leaves, and branches 
of the inflorescence densely clothed with red-brown velvety tomentum. 
Leaves alternate, petiolate, 3-6 in. long, obovate-oblong or broadly oblong, 
obtuse, quite entire, coriaceous, glabrous above when mature with impressed 
veins, glaucous and finely pubescent beneath with prominent veins ; petioles 
