Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/699

Phyllocladus.] obtuse, membranous; on mature plants chiefly developed at the base of the young rhachises and falling away very early. Flowers diœcious or monœcious. Males very numerous, in fascicles of 10–20 at the tips of the branches, ¾–1 in. long, on stout peduncles of equal length. Female flowers forming globose heads terminating short stout distichous peduncles (modified cladodes) springing from the rhachis below the cladodes; fully ripe heads ½ in. long. Nuts 8–20, compressed, about ⅛ in. long, half exserted beyond the thickened scales; aril cupular.—Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. i. (1868) 149; Trans. N.Z. Inst. (1878) 380; Forest Fl. t. 98, 99; Pilger in Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, 95.

3. P. alpinus, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 235, t. 53.—A shrub or small tree, usually from 8 ft. to 25 ft. high, but in exposed alpine localities often reduced to a bush of 3–6 ft.; branches numerous, short, stout, spreading; trunk short, 6–14 in. diam. Cladodes simple, crowded, spreading, ½–1½ in. long, variable in shape, linear-oblong to oblong-rhomboid, obtuse or acute, very coriaceous, glaucous, lobed or pinnatifid, lobes usually obtuse. True leaves on seedling plants linear, ¼–½ in. long. Flowers monœcious. Males in fascicles of 2–5 at the tips of the branchlets, ¼–⅓ in. long; peduncles short, sometimes almost wanting. Females forming globose heads towards the base of the cladodes or on the margins of modified ones. Fully ripe heads about ¼ in. diam.; scales fleshy, bright-red. Nuts small, compressed, exserted beyond the scales; aril cupular, margin irregularly lobulate.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 260; Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 382; Forest Fl. t. 100; Pilger in Pflanzenreich'', iv. 5, 98. P. trichomanoides var. alpinus, ''Parl. in D.C. Prodr.'' xvi. 2, 498.