Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/205

Metrosideros. obtuse, rounded at the base, sessile, rather membranous, glabrous or slightly silky when young. Flowers small, pink or whitish-pink, in small lateral few-flowered cymes or racemes; pedicels slender, glabrous or pubescent. Calyx-tube pyriform, suddenly expanded into a short and broad cup-shaped limb; lobes 5, ovate-triangular. Petals orbicular, shortly clawed, exceeding the calyx-lobes. Stamens slender, ⅓ in. long. Ovary wholly aduate to the base of the calyx-tube. Capsule small, $1⁄8$–$1⁄6$ in. long, globose, 3-lobed, crowned by the funnel-shaped calyx-limb, loculicidally 3-valved to the base.—Raoul, Choix, 49; ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 67, t. 16; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 71; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 161. M. subsimilis, ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xii. (1880) 361.

7. M. Colensoi, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 68.—A slender climbing shrub with numerous very slender leafy terete or obscurely tetragonous branches; branchlets densely pubescent or setose. Leaves distichous, often imbricating, sessile or very shortly petioled, ⅓–¾ in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, rounded at the base, almost membranous, densely pubescent when young, often becoming almost glabrous when mature. Flowers small, pink or whitish, in terminal or lateral trichotomous cymes which are rarely more than 1½ in. long; peduncles and pedicels silky-pubescent. Calyx-tube funnel-shaped, much longer than the ovary, pubescent; lobes small, narrow-triangular, acute, as long as or slightly longer than the small orbicular petals. Ovary wholly adnate to the base of the calyx-tube. Capsule small, $1⁄6$–$1⁄5$ in. long, globose, 3-lobed, crowned by the long funnel-shaped calyx-limb, loculicidallv 3-valved to the base.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 72; Kirk, Students Fl.'' 162.

8. M. robusta, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 557.—A tall and stout forest-tree, 60–80 or even 100ft. high; trunk irregular, 3–8 ft. diam. or more; branches spreading, forming a huge rounded head; branchlets 4-angled, puberulous. Leaves decussate, 1–1½ in. long, elliptic-oblong or ovate-oblong or elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous,