Taparophyllum.| GENTIANACEAE. 737 
about +in. diam. Seeds orbicular, somewhat compressed.—Fl. Tasm. 3 
(1860) 273, t. 87; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv (1869) 387; Petrie in Trans. N.Z, 
Inst. xii (1880) 35; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. #1. (1906) 457. 
Norra Isnanp: Bogs between Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu, 7’. F.C. ; central volcanic 
plateau, Cockayne! Kaimanawa Mountains, B. C. Asion/ Tararua Mountains, Mount 
Hector, Petrie; Mount Denman and The Quoin, B. C. Aston/ Souru Isnanp: Mount 
Rochfort and other mountains near Westport, Dr. Gaze! W. Townson! Otago— 
Longwood Range, 7. Kirk! Srewart Istanp: Not uncommon in bogs, Petrie / 
T. Kirk! Thomson ! Cockayne. Ascends to nearly 5000ft. on the Kaimanawa 
Mountains ; descends to sea-level in Stewart Island. January—lebruary. 
A curious little plant, probably not uncommon in mountain-bogs on the west side 
of the South Island. 
Family LXXXVII.. APOCYNACEAE. 
Erect or climbing shrubs, rarely trees or herbs, juice often milky, 
Leaves opposite or whorled, very rarely alternate, simple and entire ; 
stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite, usually in axillary or 
terminal cymes. Calyx inferior, 4-lobed or -partite ; lobes imbricate, often 
glandular at the base. Corolla gamopetalous, hypogynous, funnel- or salver- 
shaped ; tube often hairy or scaly within; lobes 5, rarely 4, spreading, 
usually contorted in the bud. Stamens 5, rarely 4, inserted on the tube of 
the corolla ; filaments short ; anthers often sagittate, either free or connate 
and adhering to the stigma; pollen granular. Ovary superior, usually 
composed of 2 carpels connate only by their styles, but in one tribe the 
carpels are wholly combined into a 2-celled ovary with axile placentas or 
into a l-celled ovary with 2 parietal placentas ; ovules 2 or several or many ; 
style single or separated at the base only, thickened above ; stigma entire 
or 2-fid, often constricted in the middle. Fruit generally of 2 follicles open- 
ing along the inner edge, sometimes a drupe or berry. Seeds various, often 
with a tuft of silky hairs; albumen generally present ; embryo straight, 
radicle usually superior. 
A large family, abundantly represented in the tropics of both hemispheres, less 
plentiful in extra-tropical warm regions, and decidedly rare in the temperate zones, 
Genera about 100; species under 1000. The family includes many poisonous plants, 
some (as the ordeal-tree of Madagascar, Tanghinia venenifera) being exceedingly viru- 
lent. Others are employed medicinally as drastic purgatives or febrifuges. A few 
species yield indiarubber, but on the whole the family is not of much economic 
importance. The flowers are often of considerable beauty, and many genera are culti- 
vated in gardens or greenhouses. The single New Zealand genus extends through 
Australia to India and Ceylon. , 
PARSONSIA Rk. Br.icos C quo p. 120. 
Twining shrubs, with long slender branched stems, often woody below, 
Leaves opposite. Flowers small, in terminal or axillary corymbose cymes, 
Calyx 5-partite, naked or glandular.within or furnished with 5 scales, 
Corolla salver-shaped ; tube short, cylindrical or nearly globular, throat 
naked ; lobes 5, spreading, the edges overlapping to the right. Stamens 
inserted about the middle of the corolla-tube or below it; filaments often 
twisted ; anthers included or exserted, cohering in a cone or ring round 
the stigma, cells produced into 2 rigid empty basal lobes. Hypogynous 
scales 5. Ovary 2-celled; style slender; ovules numerous in each cell, 
24—Fl, 
