4. EUGENIA, Linn.
Shrubs or trees, glabrous or rarely tomentose or villous. Leaves opposite, penniveined. Flowers solitary and axillary, or in terminal or lateral cymes or panicles. Calyx-tube globose to narrow-turbinate; lobes 4, rarely 5. Petals the same number as the calyx-lobes. Stamens numerous, in manv series. Ovary 2- or rarely 3-celled; style filifonn; stigma small; ovules numerous in each cell. Fruit a berry, rarely dry and fibrous, crowned by the persistent calyx-limb. Seeds solitary or few, globose or variously compressed; testa membranous or cartilaginous. Embryo thick and fleshy; radicle short; cotyledons thick, more or less united or distinct.
An immense genus of more than 700 species, spread over the tropical and subtropical regions of both hemispheres. There is little to separate it from Myrtus except the thick and fleshy embryo with a short radicle. The single New Zealand species is endemic.
1. E. maire, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 564.—A small tree 20–50 ft. high, perfectly glabrous in all its parts; trunk 1–2 ft. diam., with white bark; branchlets slender, 4-angled. Leaves opposite, 1–2 in. long, oblong-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate to elliptic-oblong, acute or acuminate, rather membranous, narrowed into short slender petioles. Flowers ½ in. diam., sometimes almost unisexual, white, in terminal many-flowered corymbose panicles 1½–3 in. broad; pedicels slender, glabrous. Calyx-tube broadly obconic; lobes very short, broad, deciduous. Petals orbicular, falling avvay early. Stamens slender, ½–⅔ in. long. Ovary wholly adnate to the base of the calyx-tube, 2-celled; ovules numerous. Berry ½ in. long, ovoid, red, crowned by the persistent calyx-limb, 1-celled. Seed solitarv, large; testa hard, coriaceous.—Raoul, Choix. 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 71; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 74; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 122; Students' Fl. 165.
North Island: Swampy forests from the North Cape southwards, abundant. South Island: Queen Charlotte Sound and Pelorus Valley, J. Rutland. Sea-level to 1500 ft. Maire-tawake. March–May.
Wood hard, dense, and durable; valuable for cabinet-work, turnery, &c.
Order XXIX. ONAGRARIEÆ.
Herbs, rarely shrubs or small trees. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple, entire or toothed, exstipulate. Flowers usually regular, hermaphrodite. Calyx-tube often elongated, altogether adnate to the ovary, sometimes produced beyond it; limb of 2–5 valvate lobes. Petals as many as the calyx-lobes, inserted at the top of the calyx-tube, rarely wanting. Stamens as many or twice as many as the petals, inserted with them. Ovary inferior, usually 2–4-celled; style simple, filiform; stigma capitate or 2–4-lobed; ovules usually numerous in each cell, in 1 or 2 series, pendulous or
