Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/292

252 separated by the nearly glabrous branchlets and oblong yellow fruit. The leaves are often blotched, and are usually more or less deciduous, so that the plant is often quite bare in spring.

15. C. areolata, ''Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xviii. (1886) 315.—An erect closely branched shrub or small tree 6–15 ft. high; branches slender, fastigiate, ultimate pubescent or villous with soft greyish hairs. Leaves ⅓–⅔ in. long, orbicular-spathulate to ovateor elliptic-spathulate, acute or apiculate, abruptly narrowed into short hairy petioles, thin and membranous, flat, glabrous or nearly so above, usually pubescent on the veins beneath; veins forming large areoles. Flowers axillary, solitary or in 2–4-flowered fascicles. Male flowers: True calyx wanting, but one or two calycine involucels closely invest the base of the corolla. Corolla broadly campanulate, $1⁄8$ in. long, deeply 4–5-lobed. Females: Solitary or 2 together, $1⁄10$ in. long. Calyx truncate or obscurely 4-toothed. Corolla narrow-funnel-shaped, shortly 4-lobed. Drupe globose, $1⁄6$ in. diam., black or nearly so when fully ripe.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 235. C. multiflora, ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xxi. (1889) 86.

16. C. tenuicaulis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 106.—A much-branched shrub 4–8 ft. high; bark purplish-brown; branches slender, spreading, often interlaced, young ones finely puberulous. Leaves ¼–½ in. long, rarely more, orbicular- or ovate-spathulate, rounded at the apex, obtuse or subacute, abruptly narrowed into a short flat petiole, somewhat coriaceous, flat, glabrous on both surfaces; veins reticulated in large areoles. Flowers axillary, solitary or in 2–3-flowered fascicles, involucellate. Males: Calyx wanting. Corolla campanulate, $1⁄8$–$1⁄6$ in. long, 4–5-lobed. Females smaller and shorter. Calyx-limb truncate. Corolla tubular, 3–5-lobed. Drupe globose or depressed, $1⁄8$ in. diam., shining-black.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 115; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 239; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 236.

17. C. rhamnoides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 474.—A small densely branched shrub 2–6 ft. high; bark reddish-brown, uneven; branches numerous, spreading, often rigid and interlaced when