Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/145

Corynocarpus.] ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 49; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 46; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 88; Students' Fl.'' 96.





Glabrous shrubs, sometimes small and almost herbaceous; branches angular, the lower opposite. Leaves opposite or rarely in whorls of 3, entire, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamous, small, usually in axillary racemes. Sepals 5, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5, hypogynous, smaller than the sepals, keeled within, enlarged after flowering and becoming thick and fleshy and embracing the fruit. Stamens 10, hypogynous, free, or the alternate ones adnate to the petals; filaments short; anthers large. Disc absent. Carpels 5–10, free, 1-celled, whorled on a short conical receptacle; styles as many as the carpels, free, thick, elongated, covered for the whole length with stigmatic papillæ; ovules solitary, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit of 5–10 oblong indehiscent cocci, closely embraced by the fleshy and juicy petals, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed with a membranous testa; albumen a thin layer only; embryo with plano-convex cotyledons and a superior radicle.

Characters of the order, as above.

1. C. ruscifolia, ''Linn. Sp. Plant.'' 1037.—A shrub or small tree with spreading 4-angled branches, very variable in height and degree of robustness, sometimes attaining 25 ft. with a trunk 10 in. diam., at others not more than 2–4 ft., with almost herbaceous stems. Leaves 1–3 in., ovate or oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or cordate at the base, sessile or very shortly petioled, 3–5-nerved. Racemes drooping, many-flowered, 4–12 in. long or more, slightly pubescent; pedicels slender, ¼–⅓ in., bracteolate at