Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/677

Elatostema.] diam. Males: Bracts broad, glabrous or puberulous. Flowers very numerous, pedicelled, hidden among the broad membranous bracteoles. Perianth 4-partite; segments abruptly acuminate, hyaline. Females with the bracts narrower and more pubescent. Bracteoles linear-spathulate, ciliate. Flowers almost sessile; perianth very minute, of 4 hyaline segments. Stigma penicillate. Achene minute, ovoid, smooth.—Raoul, Choix, 42; ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 227; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 253.

{{smaller block|{{sc|North Island:}} Damp shaded ravines from the North Cape southwards to the middle of Wellington Province, but local to the south of the VVaikato River. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Parataniwha. Flowers spring and summer.

The heads or receptacles are usually described as unisexual, but it is not uncommon to find both sexes mixed in the same head.}

Shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate or opposite, toothed, 3-nerved; stipules usually free, deciduous. Flowers monœcious or diœcious, in small globose glomerules; glomerules axillary, either solitary or spiked or racemed or panicled. Male flowers: Perianth 3–5-lobed or -partite; segments valvate. Stamens 3–5, inflexed in bud. Rudimentary ovary clavate or globose. Female flowers: Perianth tubular, compressed or ventricose, mouth often contracted, 2–4-toothed. Ovary included, sessile or stipitate; stigma filiform, persistent; ovule solitary, erect. Achene closely invested by the persistent perianth, crustaceous. Seed albuminous; cotyledons ovate or elliptic.

1. B. dealbata, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 410.—A small tree 8–25 ft. high; branches terete, pubescent with minute appressed hairs. Leaves alternate, 3–6 in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded at the base, rarely slightly cordate, obtusely serrate, prominently 3-nerved and with the secondary veins also strongly marked, green and glabrous and rugulose above, white and hoary beneath; petioles stout, ¾–2 in. long, grooved on the upper surface. Flowers minute, in small axillary sessile glomerules, which are either unisexual or androgynous. Male flowers: Perianth deeply 4-partite; segments oblongovate, acuminate, clothed with erect hairs. Stamens exserted. Females: Perianth tubular, dilated below, contracted at the 2-toothed mouth. Stigma exserted, long, filiform, hirsute. Fruiting-perianth much compressed, broadly winged. Achene very minute, ovoid, quite smooth.