Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 49; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 46; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 88; Students' Fl. 96.
Kermadec Islands, North Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant, chiefly in lowland situations not far from the sea. South Island: Marlborough and Nelson to Banks Peninsula and Westland, but very rare and local. Karaka. August-November.
The pulpy part of the fruit is edible; but the seed is highly poisonous unless steamed, or steeped in salt water. See Mr. Colenso's valuable paper "On the Vegetable Food of the New-Zealanders" (Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. 25), also notes by Mr. Skey and Mr. Colenso (l.c. iv. 316). The wood is soft and almost useless.
Order XXI. CORIARIEÆ.
Glabrous shrubs, sometimes small and almost herbaceous; branches angular, the lower opposite. Leaves opposite or rarely in whorls of 3, entire, exstipulate. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or polygamous, small, usually in axillary racemes. Sepals 5, imbricate, persistent. Petals 5, hypogynous, smaller than the sepals, keeled within, enlarged after flowering and becoming thick and fleshy and embracing the fruit. Stamens 10, hypogynous, free, or the alternate ones adnate to the petals; filaments short; anthers large. Disc absent. Carpels 5–10, free, 1-celled, whorled on a short conical receptacle; styles as many as the carpels, free, thick, elongated, covered for the whole length with stigmatic papillæ; ovules solitary, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit of 5–10 oblong indehiscent cocci, closely embraced by the fleshy and juicy petals, 1-celled, 1-seeded. Seed with a membranous testa; albumen a thin layer only; embryo with plano-convex cotyledons and a superior radicle.
A small order of very doubtful relationship, comprising the single genus Coriaria. Species 8 or 10, found in New Zealand, South America, Japan, China, the Himalayas, north Africa, and south Europe.
1. CORIARIA, Linn.
Characters of the order, as above.
| Shrub or small tree. Leaves 1–3 in., oblong-ovate. Racemes drooping | 1. C. ruscifolia. |
| Suffruticose or herbaceous. Leaves 18–1 in., ovate-lanceolate | 2. C. thymifolia. |
| Herbaceous. Leaves 18–14 in., narrow-linear | 3. C. angustissima. |
1. C. ruscifolia, Linn. Sp. Plant. 1037.—A shrub or small tree with spreading 4-angled branches, very variable in height and degree of robustness, sometimes attaining 25 ft. with a trunk 10 in. diam., at others not more than 2–4 ft., with almost herbaceous stems. Leaves 1–3 in., ovate or oblong-ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded or cordate at the base, sessile or very shortly petioled, 3–5-nerved. Racemes drooping, many-flowered, 4–12 in. long or more, slightly pubescent; pedicels slender, ¼–⅓ in., bracteolate at
