Plagianthus.| MALVACEAE. 563 
campanulate, 5-toothed. Petals oblong-spathulate, obtuse, clawed, much 
smaller in the female flowers. Staminal column exserted in the males, 
long and slender, bearing numerous almost sessile anthers at the tip. 
Fruiting-carpels Lin. diam., seated in the persistent veined calyx, ovoid, 
acuminate, downy. Seed solitary—Raoul Chovs (1846) 48; Hook. f. Fl. 
Nov. Zel. i (1853) 29; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 30 ; T. Kirk Forest Fl. (1889) 
tt. 103, 104; Students’ Fl. (1899) 71; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 77. 
P. urticinus A. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n. 606. P. Chathamicus Cockayne 
in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiv (1902) 319 (name only). Phillipodendron regrum 
Poit. in Ann. Sci. Nat. Ser. ii, viii (1837) t. 3. 7 Crgqia) mea. 
NortH anp Sovurn Istanps, STEwarT IstanD, CHATHAM Istanps: Lowland 
forests from Mangonui and Kaitaia southwards, but often local. Ascends to 1500 ft. 
November—December. Ribbon-wood of Europeans; manatu of the Maoris. 
Practically dioecious, although a few hermaphrodite flowers are sometimes mixed 
with the males. The male flowers are whitish-yellow, and are produced in immense 
profusion; the ovary is much reduced in size, and the style always included in the 
staminal column. The females are greenish, smaller and less numerous, the petals are 
smaller and adnate for some distance to the staminal column, the anthers are devoid of 
pollen, and the style exserted. | 
Dr. Cockayne separates his P. chathamica on the ground of its not passing through 
a young stage with foliage differing from that of the mature tree. Flowering specimens 
from the Chatham Islands in my herbarium have rather larger calyces than the type, 
but I can see no other difference. For a full description of the seedlings and young 
plants of both forms, reference should be made to Dr. Cockayne’s paper, ‘* An Inquiry 
into the Seedling Forms of New Zealand Phanerogams and their Development, 
Part LV ” (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiii (1901) 273-82). 
9 HOHERIA A. Cunn. 1% 2%, 
A shrub or small tree. Leaves petiolate, alternate, serrate. Flowers 
numerous, in axillary fascicles, white; peduncles jointed at the middle. 
Bracteoles wanting. Calyx hemispherical, 5-toothed. Petals oblique, 
notched near the apex. Staminal column split at the top mto numerous 
filaments, usually arranged in 5 bundles. Ovary 5-celled, rarely more ; 
ovules 1 in each cell; style-branches as many as the cells, filiform ; stigmas 
capitate. Fruiting-carpels 5, placed round a central axis from which they 
fall away when ripe, indehiscent, furnished with a broad membranous wing 
at the back. Seed pendulous. 
A genus confined to New Zealand. I is doubtful whether it should be regarded 
as composed of one highly variable species or of 3 or possibly 4 closely allied ones. 
In the previous edition I followed Hooker in adopting the first-mentioned course, but 
further consideration has now induced me to accept as species three of the four 
varieties originally proposed by Hooker in the ~ Flora Novae-Zelandiae.” 
Leaves broad-ovate, with large sharp teeth; blade 3-din. long. 
Flowers in 5-10-flowered fascicles, 1 in. diam. baa .. lL. A. populnea. 
Leaves ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, serrate ; blade 2-5 in. long. 
Flowers in 2—-5-flowered fascicles, }in. diam. .. £3 
ceaves linear-oblong, spinulose-toothed, obtuse. Flowers small, 
Fin. diam. a = te re tae, .. 23 A. angustifolia, 
2. H. sexstylosa. 
1. H. populnea 4. Cunn. Precur. (1839) n, 600.—A small handsome tree 
12-30 ft. high, glabrous except the young shoots, peduncles, and calyces, 
which are usually more or less pubescent ; bark tough, dark - brown ; 
branches slender, glabrous. Leaves of young plants (also occasionally 
found on the lower branches of old ones) very variable in size and shape, 
usually shorter and rounder and broader than those of the adult, 1-24 in. 
long or more, deeply and coarsely dentate or even lobed, 1-8 in. long, 
Baraka Soot TaCigeal que 
