Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/202

162 versatile. Ovary inferior or half-superior, 3-celled; style filiform; stigma small; ovules numerous in each cell. Capsule coriaceous, altogether enclosed in the persistent calyx-tube or protruding beyond it, 3-celled, loculicidally 3-valved or irregularly dehiscent. Seeds numerous, densely packed, linear; testa membranous.

1. M. florida, ''Sm. in Trans. Linn. Soc.'' iii. (1797) 269.—Usually a tall woody climber, reaching the tops of lofty trees; stems long, cable-like, often 3–6 in. diam.; bark loose, separating in large flakes. Leaves 1½–3 in. long, shortly petioled, elliptic-oblong, obtuse, coriaceous, glabrous; midrib stout. Flowers orange-red, in few- or many-flowered terminal simple or branched cymes. Calyx obconic or turbinate, glabrous, produced beyond the ovary. Petals orbicular, yellowish-red. Stamens scarlet, very numerous, ¾–1 in. long. Ovary completely adnate with the base of the calyx-tube, 3-celled. Capsule deeply sunk within the persistent calyx, and with it forming a woody urceolate 5-ribbed fruit ½–¾ in. long, usually dehiscing by 3 valves within the calyx.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 333; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 559; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 66. t. 15; ''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 70; Kirk, Forest''