Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/297

Coprosma.]

26. C. virescens, ''Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xi. (1879) 426.—A glabrous much-branched shrub 5–10 ft. high; branches very slender, flexuose, spreading and interlaced; bark pale greyishbrown. Leaves $1⁄5$–$1⁄3$ in. long, spathulate or oblong-spathulate, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into a short slender petiole, membranous, quite glabrous; margins flat or slightly undulate. Stipules acute, ciliolate. Flowers involucellate, solitary or in 2–3-flowered fascicles. Male flowers: Calyx wanting. Corolla $1⁄8$ in. long, campanulate, 4-partite almost to the base. Females: Calyx-limb obsoletely 4-toothed. Corolla shorter and narrower than in the males, tubular, deeply 4-lobed. Drupe ¼ in. long, oblong, yellowish-white, translucent.—''Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 244; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 240. C. divaricata var. pallida, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' 107.

27. C. acerosa, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 477.—A low often excessively braiiched prostrate or suberect wide-spreading shrub 1–5 ft. high; branches straight or flexuous or zigzag, often closely interlaced, younger ones puberulous; bark yellowish-brown or dark-brown, often fissured and uneven. Leaves in close or distant opposite pairs or fascicles, ¼–⅔ in. long, about $1⁄20$ in. wide, erecto-patent, very uniform in shape, narrow-linear, obtuse or subacute, veinless. Flowers axillary, terminating minute arrested branchlets, involucellate. Males: Solitary or in 2–4-flowered fascicles. Calyx wanting. Corolla $1⁄6$ in. long, campanulate, 4-partite to below the middle. Stamens 4. Females solitary. Calyx-limb minutely 4-toothed. Corolla $1⁄10$ in. long, tubular, 4-lobed. Drupe globose, variable in size, $1⁄6$–$1⁄3$ in., pale-blue, translucent.—Raoul, Choix, 46; ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 109; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 118; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xix. (1887) 244; Kirk, Students Fl.'' 240.