North and South Islands: Abundant in forests from the Three Kings Islands and North Cape to Marlborough and Nelson. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Aka. January–March.
I have seen no specimens from further south than Marlborough, but it has been recorded from Banks Peninsula and the Auckland Islands, I believe erroneously. Mr. Colenso's M. tenuifolia, as proved by the type specimens in his herbarium, is based upon the young plant, which has slender glabrous stems and almost membranous leaves. His M. vesiculata is a state in which the glands on the undersurface of the leaves and calyces are more conspicuous than usual.
3. MYRTUS, Linn.
Shrubs or rarely trees, glabrous or pubescent or tomentose. Leaves opposite, often coriaceous, pellucid-dotted. Flowers axillary, solitary or in few-flowered cymes. Calyx-tube subglobose or turbinate; lobes 4–5, usually persistent. Petals 4–5, spreading. Stamens very numerous, in many series, free, longer than the petals. Ovary inferior, completely or imperfectly 2–3-celled; ovules numerous in each cell. Fruit a globose or ovoid berry, crowned with the persistent calyx-limb. Seeds few or many, reniform or almost globose; testa crustaceous or bony. Embryo terete, curved or annular; cotyledons small; radicle long.
Species about 100, most of them natives of South America, a few extending to Mexico and the West Indies. There are also 9 or 10 Australian species, and 1 (the common myrtle) widely spread over southern Europe and western Asia. The 4 New Zealand species are all endemic.
| Leaves 1–2 in. long, tumid between the veins | 1. M. bullata. |
| Leaves ⅔–1 in. long, flat | 2. M. Ralphii. |
| Leaves ¼–½ in., obcordate. Calyx 4-lobed | 3. M. obcordata. |
| Leaves ¼–½ in., obovate. Calyx 5-lobed | 4. M. pedunculata. |
1. M. bullata, Sol. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 565.—An erect shrub, usually from 10 to 15 ft., but sometimes taller and becoming a small tree 20–25 ft. high; branchlets and young leaves tomentose. Leaves 1–2 in. long, reddish-brown, shortly petioled, broadly ovate or orbicular-ovate, obtuse or acute or apiculate, coriaceous, the surface tumid or blistered between the veins. Flowers axillary, solitary, ½ in. diam., white. Peduncles longer or shorter than the leaves, tomentose. Calyx 2-bracteolate at the base; lobes 4, obtuse or subacute. Petals orbicular, white. Berry ⅓ in. long, broadly ovoid, dark-red, becoming almost black when fully ripe, 2-celled. Seeds numerous, in 2 series in each cell, reniform; testa bony.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 557; Bot. Mag. t. 4809; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 70; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 74; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 131; Students' Fl. 164.
North Island: Common in woods from the North Cape to Cook Strait. South Island: Various localities in Marlborough and Nelson, rare. Ascends to 2000 ft. Ramarama. December–January.
Easily distinguished by the tumid or blistered surface of the leaves, and by the calyx and petals being covered with minute warts. The peduncles are sometimes 2-flowered.
