Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/123

Entelea.] district, ''Banks and Solander! J. Adams; Hawke's Bay, Colenso! Cape Palliser and Paikakariki, Kirk; Urenui, Taranaki, T. F. C. : Collingwood, Hector; islands near Cape Farewell, Kingsley. Whau, Hauma.'' October-January.

Greedily eaten by cattle and horses, and consequently fast becoming rare on the mainland, except in comparatively inaccessible situations. It is still plentiful on most of the small outlying islands on the north-east coast of the Auckland District, often exhibiting great luxuriance. On Cuvier Island I measured leaves with petioles 2 ft. long, with a blade 1ft. 6 in. diam. The wood is extremely light, the specific gravity being much less than that of cork. It is frequently used by the Maoris for the floats of fishing-nets.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves opposite or nearly so, entire or toothed, exstipulate. Flowers small, unisexual, axillary or lateral, racemose or rarely solitary. Sepals 4–5, valvate. Petals the same number, 3-lobed, toothed or entire, inserted round the base of the thickened torus. Stamens numerous or 4–5, inserted on the torus. Ovary 2–4-celled; ovules 2 in each cell; styles subulate. Fruit a berry. Seeds ascending or pendulous, often pulpy on the outside of the hard testa.

1. A. racemosa, Hook. f Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 33.—A small graceful tree 8–25 ft. high; bark of young branches red, becoming darker with age; branchlets, young leaves, petioles, and inflorescence pubescent. Leaves opposite or nearly so, 2–5 in. long, ovate or ovate-cordate, acuminate, thin and membranous, deeply and irregularly acutely serrate, often reddish beneath; petioles long and slender. Flowers small, $1⁄6$ in. diam., rose-coloured, in many-flowered axillary panicles, diœcious; the males rather larger than the females; pedicels slender. Petals 4, 3-lobed at the tip, smaller in the female flowers. Stamens numerous, minutely hairy; anthers longer than the filaments. Female flowers: Ovary 3–4-celled; styles the same number. Fruit a 3–4-celled berry about the size of a pea, dark-red or almost black. Seeds usuallv about 8, angular.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 33; T. Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 113; Students' Fl.'' 75. Friesia racemosa, ''A. Cunn. Precur. n. 603; Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 48; Hook. Ic. Plant,'' t. 601.