obovate or obovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, rarely oblong- or elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed into a short stout petiole, acute or subacute, remotely and often obscurely sinuate-serrate. Racemes 2–4 in. long, always much shorter than the leaves. Flowers much as in Q. serrata, but filaments usually shorter, Capsule slightly larger.—Q. serrata. var. b, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 125, f. 6, 7.
North Island: Little Barrier Island, T. F. C.; East Cape, Bishop Williams! South Island: West Coast, from Collingwood to Hokitika, Travers, Kirk! Helms! T. F. C.
An exceedingly puzzling plant. It is certainly connected by numerous intermediates with the typical state of Q. serrata, but its extreme forms appear much too distinct to admit of the two species being united. It is abundant on the Little Barrier Island, where the leaves attain an extreme length of 8 in. by a breadth of 2½ in. Southern specimens have smaller and more elliptic leaves.
3. IXERBA, A. Cunn.
A small glabrous tree. Leaves opposite, alternate or whorled, exstipulate. Flowers white, in terminal panicles. Calyx-tube short, adnate to the base of the ovary; lobes 5, imbricate, deciduous. Petals 5, inserted beneath a 5-lobed disc, obovate, clawed, imbricate. Stamens 5, alternating with the lobes of the disc; filaments filiform. Ovary superior, conical, 5-lobed, 5-celled, narrowed into a subulate twisted 5-furrowed style; stigma acute; ovules 2 in each cell, collateral. Capsule coriaceous, broadly ovoid, 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved; valves extending through the style, ultimately recurved, cohering below, 2-partite above. Seeds large, oblong, compressed, shining; funicle thick; embryo large; albumen very scanty.
A well-marked monotypic genus, confined to New Zealand.
1. I. brexioides, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 580.—A small branching tree 20–50 ft. high, rarely more, with a trunk 1–2 ft. diam. Leaves 3–6 in. long, ⅓–1 in. broad, linear or linear-lanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous, acute or subacute, obtusely serrate; teeth tipped by a gland. Flowers large, 1–1½ in. diam.; pedicels jointed, silky. Calyx-lobes broadly ovate, silky. Capsule ¾ in. diam.—Hook. Ic. Plant, t. 577, 578; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 82; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 48; Students' Fl. 138.
North Island: Hilly forests from Ahipara and Maungataniwha to the northern part of Hawke's Bay. Ascends to 3000 ft. Tawari. November–December.
A remarkably handsome tree. The wood is hard and dense, and probably durable, but has been little used.
4. CARPODETUS, Forst.
A shrub or small tree. Leaves alternate, petiolate, exstipulate. Flowers small, white, in axillary and terminal cymose panicles.
