Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/673

Paratrophis.] 2. P. Banksii, Cheesem. n. sp.—A small tree 15–25 ft. high, glabrous or the young branches pubescent; bark brown. Leaves usually close- set, spreading, 1½–3½ in. long, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse or acute, coriaceous, glabrous, obtusely crenate or crenate-dentate, veins finely reticulate. Spikes solitary or geminate or rarely 3 together, axillary, rarely terminal, pedunculate. Males 1–2 in. long, cylindrical, densely many-flowered; flowers intermixed with peltate scales. Perianth rather larger than in P. heterophylla. Female spikes ½–1 in. long; flowers 8–25 or more, distichous, rhachis compressed. Drupe broadly ovoid, red, ¼ in. diam., always several and often many ripening on each spike.—P. heterophylla var. elliptica, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxix. (1897) 500, t. 46. Trophis opaca, ''Banks and Sol. ex Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 224.

3. P. Smithii, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 148.—A perfectly glabrous shrub or small tree 6–15 ft. high, with copious milky juice; branches long, slender, straggling, often flexuous and interlaced; bark dark-brown, rough with raised lenticels. Leaves 4–8 in. long, ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, obtuse or obtusely acuminate, rounded or obliquely cordate at the base, quite entire, dark-green, coriaceous; veins conspicuous, reticulated; stipules lanceolate, caducous. Spikes solitary or geminate, axillary or from the branches below the leaves, 2–5 in. long. Males cylindric, densely many-flowered; flowers intermixed with peltate scales. Perianth ⅛ in. diam.; segments rounded, spreading, pubescent externally. Females many-flowered, the flowers minute, densely packed in 2 irregular rows on each side of the flattened rhachis, intermixed with peltate scales. Perianth-segments rounded, obtuse, closely appressed to the ovary, the 2 outer rather smaller than the others. Ovary conic, exserted. Style deeply 2-partite. Drupe globose, bright-red, ⅓ in. diam.