Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/226

186 This requires further investigation with more complete material. Some of the forms included in it by Haussknecht hardly differ from E. glabellum, except in the more branching habit, paler colour, and longer stalked capsules, and would probably be better placed under that species. Others (E. elegans, Petrie) have the stems simple or branched at the base alone, with much, narrower leaves, larger flowers, and the peduncles elongate considerably in fruit.

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate or opposite or whorled. Flowers axillary, solitary or clustered, rarely in racemes or panicles, usually pendulous, often handsome. Calyx-tube ovoid, produced above the ovary into a tubular or companulate 4-lobed limb. Petals 4, often small, rarely wanting, convolute, spreading or reflexed. Stamens 8; filaments filiform; anthers linear or oblong. Ovary 4-celled; style slender, elongated; stigma capitate, entire or 4-lobed; ovules numerous, attached to the inner angle of the cells. Berry ovoid or oblong, fleshy, 4-celled, many-seeded.

1. F. excorticata, Linn. f. Suppl. 217.—A shrub or small tree 40ft. high; trunk usually 6–18 in. diam., but sometimes reaching 2–3 ft.; bark thin, loose and papery; branches brittle. Leaves alternate, 2–5 in. long including the slender petiole, ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acuminate, entire or obscurely and remotely toothed, thin and membranous, green above, pale and silvery beneath. Plowers ¾–1¼ in. long, axillary, solitary, pendulous; peduncles long, slender. Calyx-tube inflated at the base, then suddenly contracted and again expanded into a funnel-shaped tube; lobes 4, acuminate, spreading. Petals 4, small. Stamens and style very variable in length. Berry oblong, purplish-black, juicy, ½ in. long.—''Lindl. in Bot. Reg. t. 857; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 533; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 56; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 75; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 36, 36; Students' Fl.'' 180. Skinnera excorticata, ''Forst. Char. Gen. 58; Prodr. n. 163; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel.'' 331.

Abundant from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to over 3000 ft. Native fuchsia; Kotukutuku; the fruit Konini. August–December.