Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/603

Rhabdothamnus.] 



Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate or scattered, rarely opposite, simple, entire or toothed; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, irregular or almost regular. Calyx inferior, persistent, 5partite or 5-fid. Corolla gamopetalous, hypogynous, 5-lobed; lobes imbricate. Stamens 4, didynamous, rarely 5–6, inserted at the base of the corolla-tube; anthers introrse, cells confluent. Ovary superior, not lobed, normally 2-celled with 2 (rarely more) pendulous ovules in each cell, but sometimes the cells are more or less completely divided into 2, with a single ovule in each cell, or very rarely the cells may be as many as 5–10; style terminal: stigma small, entire or emarginate. Fruit drupaceous, indehiscent, succulent or almost dry, 2–4-celled, rarely more-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell; albumen scanty, fleshy; embryo straight; radicle superior, next the hilum.

Shrubs or small trees, glabrous or the branchlets glutinous. Leaves alternate, entire or serrate, studded with pellucid glands. Flowers small, axillary, solitary or fascicled. Calyx 5-lobed or -partite, not enlarged after flowering. Corolla campanulate; tube short; limb 5-lobed, lobes subequal or the lowest rather larger. Stamens 4, rarely 5 or 6, nearly equal, included or shortly exserted. Ovary ovoid, 2–4-celled, very rarely 5–10-celled, with 1 ovule in each cell, rarely 2-celled with 2 ovules in each cell. Drupe ovoid or subglobose, more or less succulent.

1. M. lætum, Forst. Prodr. n. 238.—A shrub or small tree 8–25 ft. high; trunk 9–18 in. diam.; bark brown, thick and furrowed; branches spreading, viscid at the tips. Leaves 1½–4 in. long, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate or obovate, acute or acuminate, narrowed into petioles ½–1 in. long, serrulate above the middle, bright-green, quite glabrous, almost fleshy, veins inconspicuous. Flowers in axillary fascicles of 2–6, small, about ½ in. diam., white