2. MELICYTUS, Forst.
Trees or shrubs. Leaves petiolate, alternate, toothed or serrate; stipules minute. Flowers small, regular, diœcious, in little fascicles on the branches or axillary. Sepals 5, united at the base. Petals 5, short, spreading. Anthers 5, free, sessile; connective produced above into a broad membrane furnished with a scale at the back. Ovary 1-celled, with 3–5 parietal placentas. Style 3–6-fid at the apex, or stigma nearly sessile, lobed. Fruit a berry, with few or several angled seeds.
A small genus, limited to the four New Zealand species, one of which is also found in Norfolk Island and the Tongan Islands.
| Leaves oblong or oblong-lanceolate, serrate | 1. M. ramiflorus. |
| Leaves large, obovate, coriaceous, sinuate serrate | 2. M. macrophyllus. |
| Leaves long, linear-lanceolate, sharply and finely serrate | 3. M. lanceolatus. |
| Leaves small, orbicular-ovate, sinuate-toothed | 4. M. micranthus. |
1. M. ramiflorus, Forst. Char. Gen. 124, t. 62.—A glabrous tree or large shrub 20–30 ft. high, with a trunk 1–2 ft. in diam.; bark white; branches brittle. Leaves alternate, 2–5 in. long, oblong-lanceolate, usually with a short acuminate point but sometimes obtuse, bluntly and sometimes obscurely serrate, veins reticulate; petioles short, slender; stipules deciduous. Flowers small, 18 in. diam., greenish, diœcious, in axillary fascicles or on the branches below the leaves; pedicels slender, ⅓ in. long, with 2 minute bracts. Calyx-teeth 5, minute. Petals obtuse, spreading. Male flowers with 5 obtuse sessile anthers, each with a concave scale at the back. Females with a short conical ovary, crowned with a 4–6-lobed stigma. Berry small, violet-blue, 15 in. diam.; seeds few, black, angled.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 313; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 623; Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 48; Hook. f. Fl.Nov. Zel. i. 18; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 17; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 3; Students' Fl. 42.
Kermadec Islands, North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant throughout, ascending to fully 3000 ft. Mahoe. November–January. Also found in Norfolk Island and the Tongan Islands.
The leaves and young branches are greedily eaten by cattle; the wood is white and soft, but has been employed for producing a special kind of charcoal used in making gunpowder.
2. M. macrophyllus, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 624.—A tall slender sparingly branched shrub 8–15 ft. high; bark brownish. Leaves 3–7 in. long, obovate or oblong, coarsely sinuate-serrate, acute or shortly acuminate, coriaceous; petioles short. Flowers twice as large as those of M. ramiflorus, ¼ in. diam., greenish, in 4–10-flowered fascicles; pedicels stout, decurved, ½ in. long, with 2 rounded bracts just below the flower. Male flowers: Calyx-lobes broad, obtuse. Petals more than twice as long as the calyx, spreading, strap-shaped, recurved at the tips. Anthers sessile, apiculate. Females: Calyx of the males. Petals shorter, more erect, barely half as long
