Coprosma. | RUBIACEAE. 855 
panulate, or rotate, usually 4-5-lobed; lobes valvate or imbricate or 
contorted. Stamens inserted on the tube or mouth of the corolla, equal im 
number to its lobes. Ovary inferior, 2-many-celled, crowned by a fleshy 
dise; styles 1 or 2 or more; ovules solitary or 2 or more in each cell. 
Fruit very various, a drupe or berry or capsule, or composed of dehiscent 
or indehiscent cocci. Seeds with fleshy or horny albumen ; embryo straight 
or curved ; radicle superior or inferior. 
One of the largest and best-defined families in the vegetable kingdom, containing 
more than 350 genera and 5500 species. With the exception of the tribe Galieae, which 
is almost entirely temperate, the species are mainly tropical or subtropical, and are 
especially plentiful in the warmer portions of South America. The medicinal properties 
of the family are most important. Out of many excellent drugs yielded. by it, quinine 
and ipecacuanha are the best known and the most valuable. Among the species used 
for food the most noteworthy is the coffee-plant, which is now cultivated in all warm 
countries, and is of immense commercial importance. Many ornamental plants belong 
to the family, the various kinds of Bowvardia, Gardenia, /xora, &ec., being well-known 
examples. Of the 4 New Zealand genera, Coprosma extends to Australia and Tasmania, 
the Pacific islands, New Guinea, and the mountains of Borneo. Nertera has the same 
distribution, and is found in South America as well. The two remaining genera are 
widely distributed in the North Temperate Zone. 
* Leaves opposite ; stipules interpetiolar. Ovary 2-celled; ovules solitary in each 
cell. Fruit a drupe. 
Shrubs or small trees. Flowers unisexual .. ae .. 1, CoPROSMA. 
Slender herbs. Flowers hermaphrodite .. As .. 2, NERTERA. 
** Leaves whorled; stipules apparently wanting. (In reality the whorl consists 
of two opposite leaves and several leaf-like stipules.) Ovary 2-celled; ovules 
solitary in each cell. Fruit of 2 dry indghiscent cocci. Herbs. 
Calyx-limb wanting. Corolla rotate bi ea .. 3. GALIUM. 
Calyx-limb wanting. Corolla funnel-shaped or campanulate .. 4. ASPERULA. 
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4Erno Coptiorna 1. COPROSMA Forst. 177 6 z 
Shrubs or small trees, usually erect, more rarely prostrate or creeping, 
often foetid when bruised. Leaves opposite, petiolate or almost sessile ; 
stipules interpetiolar, acute or acuminate, entire or denticulate. Flowers 
dioecious, small and inconspicuous, solitary or clustered in few- or many- 
flowered fascicles or cymes. Calyx-limb 4-5-toothed or -lobed or almost 
truncate, often absent in the males. Corolla funnel-shaped or campanulate, 
45-lobed or -partite ; lobes valvate in the bud. Stamens usually 4 or 5, 
inserted at the base of the corolla-tube ; filaments long, filiform; anthers 
exserted, pendulous. Ovary 2-celled, rarely 3- or 4-celled ; styles the same 
number as the cells, free to the base, filiform, far-exserted, papillose-hirsute ; 
ovules solitary in each cell. Fruit a fleshy oblong or ovoid or globose drupe, 
with 2 (rarely 4) 1-seeded plano-convex pyrenes. 
A genus of about 70 species, having its headquarters in New Zealand ; found also 
in Australia and Tasmania and northwards to New Guinea and Borneo; also stretching 
through Polynesia as far as the Sandwich Islands and Juan Fernandez. In New 
Zealand it everywhere forms a large proportion of the shrubby vegetation, and it is 
equally plentiful in lowland forests or subalpine woods, often forming dense and 
sometimes almost impenetrable thickets. One species ascends the mountains to a 
height of 6000 ft., and reaches as far south as Macquarie Island, where it is the sole 
ligneous plant. The species are extremely variable in habit, foliage, and vegetative 
characters generally; and, as the flowers are small and inconspicuous and very 
uniform in structure throughout the genus, it is no easy matter to obtain good 
distinctive characters, even when dealing with fresh specimens. In the following 
