obovate to obovate-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed at the base, acute or acuminate, glossy and coriaceous, sharply serrate. Umbels terminal; male of 4–10 slender rays 2–3 in. long, bearing numerous racemose flowers on pedicels 18–14 in. long; females (or hermaphrodite?) of much shorter rays ¾–2 in. long terminating in 2–6-flowered umbellules. Flowers 16 in. diam. Ovary 5-celled; styles 5, connate at the base, very short, tips erect or slightly recurved. Fruit ¼ in. long, broadly oblong, 5-celled.—Panax discolor, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iii. (1871) 178. P. discolorum, Students' Fl. 219.
North Island: Auckland—Whangaroa North, Great Barrier Island, and Omaha, Kirk! Little Barrier Island, Kirk, Shakespear! T. F. C; Thames Goldfields, Kirk! Adams! T. F. C. Sea-level to 2800 ft. December–January.
The ovary-cells and styles are very exceptionally less than 5, and the species certainly falls into Pseudopanax as that genus is characterized in the "Genera Plantarum." Its nearest ally is P. Lessonii.
2. P. Lessonii, C. Koch in Wochenschrift, ii. (1859) 336.—A glabrous much-branched shrub or small tree 8–20 ft. high; branches robust. Leaves dark-green, 3–5-foliolate; petioles stout, 2–6 in. long, not sheathing at the base; leaflets 1–4 in., sessile, obovate- or oblong-lanceolate, acute or obtuse, entire or sinuateserrate, smooth and shining, very thick and coriaceous; veins indistinct. Umbels terminal, compound; males with 4–8 primary rays 1–6 in. long, each ending in 4–10 secondary rays bearing numerous racemose flowers; females with shorter and fewer raysand less numerous flowers, not so conspicuously racemose. Flowers 15 in. diam. Ovary 5-celled; styles 5, very short, connate at the base, their tips at length recurved. Fruit broadly oblong, ¼ in. long, 5-celled.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 221. Panax Lessonii, D.C. Prodr. iv. 253; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 102. Cussonia Lessonii, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 285, t. 32; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 511; Raoul, Choix, 46. Hedera Lessonii, A. Gray, Bot. U.S. Expl. Exped. 719.
North Island: From the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape to Poverty Bay, usually near the coast. Houmapara; Houpara. January–February.
3. P. Gilliesii, T. Kirk, Students' Fl. 221.—A shrub or small tree 10–15 ft. high; branches slender. Leaves mostly 1-foliolate, mixed with a few 3-foliolate ones; petiole slender, ½–1 in. long; blade 1½–2½ in., variable in shape, ovate to ovate-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, coarsely sinuate-toothed, rather coriaceous. Flowers long past in all the specimens seen, but apparently arranged in a racemose manner on numerous terminal peduncles 2–4 in. long; pedicels ½–1 in. Fruit ¼ in. long, broadly oblong, 5-celled; styles 5, very short, connate, free at the very tip.
North Island: Auckland—Whangaroa North, Buchanan! Gillies and Kirk!
I have seen but few specimens of this curious plant, which may be nothing more than a variety of P. Lessonii.
