Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/639

Hedycarya.] globose, hemispherical or subcampanulate, limb 4–15-toothed. Stamens usually indefinite, in one or many series on a disc lining the perianth-tube, all fertile or some reduced to staminodia; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, opening by slits or valves. Carpels usually many, rarely solitary, free, sessile on the base or sides of the perianth-tube, 1-celled; style long or short; stigma small; ovule solitary, erect or pendulous. Fruit of several (rarely only one) drupes or achenes, resting on the expanded receptacle or enclosed within the enlarged perianth. Seed solitary, testa membranous; albumen fleshy; embryo variable, radicle inferior or superior.

Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed. Flowers diœcious, in axillary cymes or racemes. Male flowers: Perianth broad, cup-shaped; segments 5–10, inflexed, more or less connate at the base. Stamens numerous, covering almost the whole of the disc; filaments very short or almost wanting; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by introrse or lateral slits. Female flowers: Perianth similar to that of the males, but rather smaller. Staminodia wanting. Carpels numerous, covering the whole disc, sessile, terminated by a thick conical style; ovule pendulous, anatropous. Fruit of few or several drupes crowded on the top of the disc-shaped receptacle. Seed pendulous; albumen copious; embryo axile, radicle superior.

1. H. arborea, ''Forst. Char. Gen.'' 128, t. 64.—A small tree 20–40 ft. high with a trunk 9–20 in. diam. or more; bark dark-brown; branches ascending, pubescent at the tips. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 2–5 in. long including the petiole, linear-oblong to obovate-oblong or obovate, acute or obtuse, distantly coarsely serrate or rarely entire, coriaceous, dark-green above, paler beneath, glabrous or more or less pubescent, especially on the petiole and midrib beneath. Racemes axillary, often corymbosely branched, shorter than the leaves; pedicels variable in length, pubescent.