than the leaves. Calyx hemispherical, 5-toothed. Petals small, oblong-obovate, veined. Staminal tube with 8–12 large sessile anthers. Ovary 1-celled, rarely 2-celled; ovules 1 in each cell; styles the same number as the cells, clavate or flattened. Fruiting carpel about the size of a peppercorn, globose or rarely didymous, downy, bursting irregularly. Seeds solitary, or very rarely 2.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 299; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 604; Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 48; Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3271; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 29; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 30; Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. t. 34, f. 2; Kirk, Students' Fl. 70.
North and South Islands, Chatham Islands: Abundant in salt-water marshes from the North Cape to the Bluff. September–October.
In the male flowers the ovary is smaller, almost rudimentary, and the style altogether enclosed within the staminal column; in the females the style is exserted, and the anthers are smaller and usually empty.
2. P. cymosus, T. Kirk, Students' Fl. 70.—A small closely branched tree about 20 ft. in height, glabrous except a few scattered stellate hairs on the young shoots and branches of the inflorescence. Leaves alternate or in alternate fascicles, ½–1¼ in. long, linear or linear-oblong or linear-obovate, obtuse or subacute, with a few deep serratures towards the tip; petioles slender, ¼–½ in. long. Flowers small, unisexual, in small axillary 5–15-flowered cymes, 1–1½ in. long, or in fascicles of 3–5, rarely solitary. Calyx campanulate, 5-toothed, narrower in the female flowers. Petals 5, ovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, much reduced in size in the females. Staminal column long and slender, with numerous anthers at the top. Ovary 1–2-celled; styles 1–2, clavate or broad and flattened. Fruiting carpels about 15 in. diam., didymous or globose, downy, seated in the persistent calyx.
North Island: Auckland—Kaitaia, Mongonui County, R. H. Matthews! South Island: Canterbury—Upper Waimakariri, alt. 2800 ft., J. D. Enys (Kirk, "Students' Flora"). Otago—Near Dunedin, G. M. Thomson! Petrie! October.
A very peculiar plant, very distinct in habit and inflorescence, although the flowers closely agree in structure with those of P. betulinus, with the exception that the ovary is frequently 2-celled. It is remarkable that only one tree (a female) has been found in the Dunedin locality, and that only one (a male) is known at Kaitaia. The Waimakariri locality is given on the authority of Mr. Kirk. There are no specimens from thence in his herbarium.
3. P. betulinus, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 605.—A handsome leafy tree 30–60 ft. high, with a trunk sometimes 3 ft. in diam.; when young forming a straggling bush with interlaced tortuous branches. Bark exceedingly tough; branchlets, young leaves, petioles, and inflorescence more or less hoary with stellate hairs. Leaves of young plants small, ⅓–¾ in. long, broadly ovate or rounded to ovate-lanceolate, deeply and irregularly lobed or crenate-serrate. Leaves of mature plants 1–3 in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, coarsely crenate-serrate or doubly serrate, rounded or cuneate at
