556 RHAMNACEAE. [ Discaria. 
1. D. Toumatou Raoul Choiw (1846) 29, t. 29.—A much-branched 
thorny bush or small tree 2-15 ft. high or even more, glabrous or slightly 
puberulous. Branches divaricating, flexuous; young ones green, terete ; 
branchlets reduced to opposite distichous or decussate rigid spines 14-2 in. 
long. Leaves often wanting, fascicled below the axils of the spines or 
opposite on short shoots, 4—-2in. long, linear-obovate or oblong-obovate, 
obtuse. Flowers small, 4in. diam., greenish-white,;fascicled with the 
leaves below the axils of the spines; pedicels short, puberulous. Calyx- 
lobes 4-5, reflexed. Petals wanting. Capsule ; in. diam., globose, deeply 
3-lobed.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 44; T. Kirk Forest Fl. (1889) 
t. 136; Students’ Fl. (1899) 93; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 101. 
D. australis Hook. var. apetala Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 47. 
Notophoena Toumatou Miers in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. ui, 5 (1860) 
27. Wd. Thc T- SH 49a mee. .s7427)s3. 
Norta Istanp: Sand-dunes north of the Waikato. River, southwards to Cook 
Strait, and in various localities in the interior, not common. SourH Isnanp: Common 
on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, and forming a large part of the vegetation of 
the mountain-valleys ; much rarer on the western side of the Island. Sea-level to 
3500 ft. Tumatu-kuru. November—January. 
Can only be distinguished from the Australian and Tasmanian D. australis by 
the absence of petals. It attains a large size in the cool mountain-valleys of the South 
Island, but near the coast is usually low and scrubby. 
Tak Lcecer.- 
Family LXV. ELAEOCARPACEAE. 
Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or subopposite, usually exstipulate, 
entire or toothed or lobed. Flowers hermaphrodite or frequently poly- 
gamous, arranged in racemes or panicles, sometimes few together or 
solitary. Sepals 4-5, free or united, valvate. Petals 4-5 or absent, 
sometimes sepaloid, often incised at the tip, valvate or imbricate, fre- 
quently pubescent.. Stamens numerous, rarely few, inserted on the disc, 
anthers 2-celled, opening by two short slits or pores at the apex. Ovary 
2—5-celled, with 2 or more ovules in each cell. Fruit a capsule or drupe ; 
seeds few in each cell or several; embryo straight; albumen copious. 
As limited above, this is a small family containing 7 or 8 genera and 120 species, 
most of which are tropical or subtropical. The two New Zealand genera have wide 
ranges. Hlaeocarpus stretches northwards to the Sandwich Islands, Australia, Malaya, 
and India, and has an outlying species in Japan; while Aristotelia occurs in South 
America, Australia, and Tasmania, and has been reported from the New Hebvides and 
New Guinea. 
Leaves alternate. Fruit a drupe nk sy a _ .. 1, ELAEOCARPUS. 
Leaves opposite. Fruit a berry es ne . .. 2, ARISTOTELIA. 
1. ELAEOCARPUS Linn. ‘77. 
Trees. Leaves usually alternate, entire or serrate, exstipulate. Flowers 
hermaphrodite, rarely polygamous, in axillary racemes. Sepals 4 or 5, 
distinct, valvate. Petals the same number, laciniate at the apex, inserted 
round a cushion-shaped torus. Stamens numerous, seated on the torus; 
anthers long, awned, opening by a terminal slit. Ovary 2-5-celled ; ovules 
2 or more in each cell, pendulous ; style subulate; stigma terminal, 
simple. Fruit a drupe with a hard or bony stone, which is 2-5-celled or 
by abortion l-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell, pendulous; albumen 
fleshy ; cotyledons broad. | 
