globose, hemispherical or subcampanulate, limb 4–15-toothed. Stamens usually indefinite, in one or many series on a disc lining the perianth-tube, all fertile or some reduced to staminodia; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, opening by slits or valves. Carpels usually many, rarely solitary, free, sessile on the base or sides of the perianth-tube, 1-celled; style long or short; stigma small; ovule solitary, erect or pendulous. Fruit of several (rarely only one) drupes or achenes, resting on the expanded receptacle or enclosed within the enlarged perianth. Seed solitary, testa membranous; albumen fleshy; embryo variable, radicle inferior or superior.
A small order, best represented in tropical South America, but also found in tropical Asia, the Mascarene Islands, Australia, and Polynesia. Genera 22; species estimated at 150. Of the 2 New Zealand genera, Hedycarya is found in Australasia and the Pacific islands, while Laurelia is confined to South America and New Zealand.
| Anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Ovule pendulous. Drupes stipitate | 1. Hedycarya. |
| Anthers opening by ascending valves. Ovule erect. Achenes with plumose styles | 2. Laurelia. |
1. HEDYCARYA, Forst.
Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed. Flowers diœcious, in axillary cymes or racemes. Male flowers: Perianth broad, cup-shaped; segments 5–10, inflexed, more or less connate at the base. Stamens numerous, covering almost the whole of the disc; filaments very short or almost wanting; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by introrse or lateral slits. Female flowers: Perianth similar to that of the males, but rather smaller. Staminodia wanting. Carpels numerous, covering the whole disc, sessile, terminated by a thick conical style; ovule pendulous, anatropous. Fruit of few or several drupes crowded on the top of the disc-shaped receptacle. Seed pendulous; albumen copious; embryo axile, radicle superior.
A genus of 8 or 10 species, one of which is endemic in New Zealand, and another in Australia, the remainder being natives of New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.
1. H. arborea, Forst. Char. Gen. 128, t. 64.—A small tree 20–40 ft. high with a trunk 9–20 in. diam. or more; bark dark-brown; branches ascending, pubescent at the tips. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 2–5 in. long including the petiole, linear-oblong to obovate-oblong or obovate, acute or obtuse, distantly coarsely serrate or rarely entire, coriaceous, dark-green above, paler beneath, glabrous or more or less pubescent, especially on the petiole and midrib beneath. Racemes axillary, often corymbosely branched, shorter than the leaves; pedicels variable in length, pubescent.
