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548 CORY NOCARPACEAE. | Corynecerpus. 
Family LX. CORYNOCARPACEAE. 
Small or medium-sized evergreen trees, without resin-canals. Leaves 
alternate, simple, exstipulate. Flowers hermaphrodite, small, arranged in 
terminal branched panicles. Calyx inferior, deeply 5-lobed ; lobes petaloid, 
unequal, the two outer smaller. Petals 5, perigynous, longer than the calyx- 
lobes, margins erose. Stamens 5, opposite to the petals and shorter than 
them ; filaments flattened in front; anthers dorsifixed, 2-celled, longitudinally 
dehiscent. Staminodia 5, alternating with the petals, oblong-spathulate ; 
margins irregularly toothed or fringed. Disc reduced to 5 glandular lobes 
placed in front of the staminodia. Ovary sessile, ovoid, either 1-celled 
and gradually narrowed into an erect style, or imperfectly 2-celled with 2 
unequal styles; stigma capitate; ovule solitary, pendulous from near the 
top of the cell. Fruit drupaceous, narrow-ovoid, obtuse, fleshy ; endocarp 
fibrous. Seed pendulous; testa membranous, adhering to the cavity of 
the cell; cotyledons plano-convex ; radicle minute, superior. 
A small family composed of the single genus Corynocarpus, the systematic position 
of which is somewhat doubtful. It was at first placed in the Myrsinaceae, but afterwards 
was transferred by Hooker to the Anacardiaceae. But it differs markedly from that 
family in the total absence of resin-canals, which are present in all the other genera. 
Influenced mainly by that peculiarity, Engler, in “‘ Die Naturlichen Pflanzenfamilien,”’ 
described it as a new family, which is probably the best solution of the difficulty. 
CORYNOCARPUS Forst. 1796. 
Characters of the family, as defined above. 
The genus was long supposed to consist of the single New Zealand species, but 
Mr. W. B. Hemsley, in an elaborate memoir printed in the “‘ Annals of Botany ” for 1903, 
pp. 743-60, has described two new species, one collected by Archdeacon Comins in 
Torres Island, New Hebrides, the other by Viellard in New Caledonia. The discovery 
of Corynocarpus in Melanesia is of considerable interest in connection with the often- 
quoted tradition that the New Zealand species was introduced by the Maoris when 
they first colonized the country. Mr. Hemsley’s memoir also contains a full discussion 
on the relationships of the genus, and descriptions of the whole of the species. 
1. ©. laevigata Forst. Char. Gen. (1776) 32, t. 16—A handsome leaty 
tree 30-50 ft. high, with a trunk 1-2 ft. diam. or more. Leaves 3-8 in. 
long, elliptic-oblong or oblong-obovate, subacute, narrowed into a short 
stout petiole, thick and coriaceous, dark-green and glossy, perfectly glabrous ; 
margins slightly recurved. _ Panicles 4-8 in. long, broad, dense, rigid, erect, 
much branched; pedicels short and thick, almost fleshy. Flowers small, 
greenish, 4-tin. diam. Sepals almost orbicular. Petals but little longer 
than the sepals, obovate-spathulate ;. margins obscurely erose. Stami- 
nodia oblong-spathulate ; margins above the middle obscurely erose-denticu- 
late. Ovary small, glabrous; style short, thick; stigma capitate. Drupe 
1-1din. long, narrow-ovoid or elliptic, rarely somewhat oblique, smooth 
and glabrous, orange when fully ripe-—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 365 ; 
A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 638; Raoul Choi (1846) 50; Bot. Mag. (1848) 
t. 4379; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 49; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 46; 
T. Kirk Forest Fl. (1889) t. 88; Students’ Fl. (1899) 96; Hemsley in Ann. 
Bot. 17 (1808) 752, t. 836: Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 104; IIL. N.Z. 
Fl. nu (1914) t. 29. 
KermMapec Istanps, Norta Isnanp, CHATHAM Istanps: Abundant, chiefly in 
lowland situations not far from the sea. Sour Istanp: Marlborough and Nelson to 
Banks Peninsula and Westland, but rare and loca!. Karaka. August to November 
