Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/122

82 Stamens numerous, rarely few, usually inserted on the torus, which is often elevated and disc-like; anthers 2-celled. Ovary free, 2–10-celled; style simple or divided into as many lobes or stigmas as there are cells to the ovary; ovules few or many, attached to the inner angle of the cell. Fruit dry or fleshy, dehiscent or indehiscent, 2–10-celled, or by abortion 1-celled. Seeds solitary or many; albumen usually copious, fleshy; embryo straight or seldom curved, radicle next the hilum.

A shrub or small tree. Leaves large, alternate, cordate, 5–7-nerved, toothed or crenate. Flowers in terminal umbelliform cymes, large, white, bracteate. Sepals 4–5, free. Petals the same number, crumpled. Stamens numerous, all fertile, free; anthers versatile. Ovary 4–6-celled; style simple; stigma terminal, denticulate or fringed; ovules numerous in each cell. Capsule globose, covered with long rigid bristles, loculicidally 4–6-valved. Seeds numerous, obovoid; testa coriaceous; albumen oily.

1. E. arborescens, ''R.Br. in Bot. Mag.'' t. 2480.—A handsome shrub or small tree 8–20 ft. high, with a trunk 5–9 in. diam.; wood exceedingly light. Young branches, leaves, petioles, and inflorescence covered with short soft stellate hairs. Leaves alternate, large, on petioles 4–8 in. long; blade 4–9 in. or more, obliquely rounded-ovate, cordate at the base, acuminate, irregularly doubly crenate-serrate, often obscurely 3-lobed, 5–7-nerved from the base; stipules persistent. Flowers very abundant, in erect terininal or axillary cymes, white, lin. diam. Sepals acuminate. Ovary hispid. Capsule 1 in. diam., globose, echinate with long rigid bristles.—''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 601; Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 48; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 31; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 32; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 33; Students Fl.'' 74. Apeiba australis, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel.'' 301, t. 34.


 * Not uncommon along the shores from the Three Kings and the North Cape to Tairua and Eaglan, rare and local further south. East Cape