562 MALVACEAE. [ Piagianthus. 
oblong-obovate, veined. Staminal tube with 8-12 large sessile anthers. 
Ovary 1-celled, rarely 2-celled; ovules 1 in each cell; styles the same 
number as‘the cells, clavate or flattened. Fruiting-carpel about the size 
of a peppercorn, globose or rarely didymous, downy, bursting irregularly. 
Seeds solitary, or very rarely 2.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 299; 
A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 604; Raoul Chore (1846) 48; Hook, Bot. Mag. 
(1833) t. 3271; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 29; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 
(1864) 30; Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi (1884) t. 34, f. 2; ZT. Kirk 
Students’ Fl. es 70; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fi. (1906) 76. 
eqs § 1 1h 17. wn: 2S, 
Nortu AnD SoutH ISLANDS, STEWART ISLAND, CHATHAM ISLANDS: Abundant in 
salt-water marshes from the North Cape to the Bluff, but rare south of Foveaux Strait. 
Septem ber—October. 
In the male flowers the ovary is smaller, almost rudimentary, and the style 
altogether enclosed within the staminal column; in the females the style is exserted, 
and the anthers are smaller and usually empty. 
2. P. eymosus 7. Kirk Students’ Fil. (1899) 70.— A small closely 
branched tree about 20 ft. in height, glabrous except a few scattered stellate 
hairs on the young shoots and branches of the inflorescence. Leaves 
alternate or in alternate fascicles, 4-1} in. long, linear or linear-oblong or 
linear-obovate, obtuse or elegy, with a few deep serratures towards 
the tip ; Lye slender, 4-3 in. long. Flowers small, unisexual, in small 
axillary 5-15-flowered cymes, 1—Idin. long, or in fascicles of 3-5, rarely 
solitary. Cay campanulate, 5- toothed, narrower in the female flowers. 
Petals 5, ovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, much reduced in size in , 
the females. Staminal column long and slender, with numerous anthers 
at the top. Ovary 1-Z-celled ; styles 1-2, clavate or broad and flattened. 
se 1a-rie\ ‘APruiting- -carpels about ¢in. diam., didymous or globose, downy, seated 
in the persistent calyx.—Cheesem. Man. N. Z. Fl, (1906) 77; Ll. N.Z. Floi 
(1914) t. 21. 
NortH Isutanp: Peat swamp at Lake Tongonge, near Kaitaia, Rk. H. Matthews / 
SoutH [stanp: Lower part of Pelorus Valley, Marlborough, abundant, H. J. Matthews 
and J. H. Macmahon! Upper Waimakariri, J. D. Hnys., alt. 2800ft. (T. Kirk 
Students’ Fl.); Port Hills, just above Lyttelton, Cockayne and Petrie; vicinity of 
Dunedin, Thomson! Petrie! McLennan River, near Catlin’s, #. Phillips Turner / 
October. 
A very peculiar plant, standing about half-way between P. divaricatus and 
P, betulinus, and presenting much of the appearance that a hybrid between the two 
might be presumed to take. With the exception of the Waimakariri habitat, about 
which nothing is known, it usually, if not invariably, occurs in localities where both 
P. divaricatus and P. betulinus are abundant. It is also remarkably rare in several of 
its known stations. Only one plant has been found at Dunedin, and for several years 
only one was known at Kaitaia. This rarity is easily explicable on the assumption of a 
hybrid origin, but difficult to account for in any other manner. 
en 
3. P. betulinus A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 605.—A handsome leafy 
tree 30-60 ft. high, with a trunk sometimes 3ft. in diam.; when young 
forming a straggling bush with interlaced tortuous branches. Bark 
exceedingly tough; branchlets, young leaves, petioles, and inflorescence 
more or less hoary with stellate hairs. Leaves of young plants small, 
$-j1in. long, broadly ovate or rounded to ovate-lanceolate, deeply avid - 
irregularly lobed or crenate-serrate. Leaves of mature plants 1-3 in. 
long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely crenate-serrate or 
doubly BaRES rounded or cuneate at the base, membranous; petioles 
slender, 3-1 in. long. » Flowers small, unisexual, very numerous, in terminal 
and axillary decompound panicles 4-9 in. long : pedicels slender. Calyx 
