2. DRAPETES, Banks.
Small prostrate spreading or densely cufted shrubby plants. Leaves small, alternate, imbricate, concave. Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamo-diœcious, sessile in small terminal heads. Perianth tubular or funnel-shaped; lobes 4, spreading; throat usually furnished with 1 or 2 scales opposite each lobe, rarely naked. Stamens 4, inserted on the throat of the perianth and alternate with its lobes; filaments short, filiform; anthers oblong. Hypogynous scales wanting. Ovary sessile, 1-celled; style long; stigma capitate; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit a small drupe; epicarp thin, fleshy; endocarp crustaceous. Seed pendulous, cotyledons broad, thick.
A small genus of 5 species, found in Fuegia, New Zealand, Australia, New Guinea, and Borneo. The New Zealand species are endemic.
| Branches glabrous or slightly villous. Leaves 110–16 in., linear or linear-ligulate. Male perianth funnel-shaped. Scales 4, entire or 2-lobed, or 8 in very closely approximate pairs | 1. D. Dieffenbachii. |
| Branches densely villous. Leaves ⅙–¼ in., linear-subulate, broadest at the base. Male perianth funnel-shaped. Scales 8, in distinct pairs | 2. D. villosa. |
| Branches closely compacted. Leaves 112–110 in., ovate-oblong, subacute. Male perianth almost campanulate. Scales 8, in distinct pairs | 3. D. Lyallii. |
Fruiting specimens of a Drapetes found on Mount Sinclair, Banks Peninsula, have been identified by Dr. Berggren with the Australian and Tasmanian D. tasmanica, Hook, f., but I have seen no specimens. According to Bentham, it is very close to D. Dieffenbachii, principally differing in the smaller and more hairy perianth, the lobes of which are as long as the tube.
1. D. Dieffenbachii, Hook. in Lond. Journ. Bot. ii. (1843) 497, t. 17.—A small creeping and rooting much-branched plant; stems woody at the base, 3–12 in. long; branches stout or slender, scarred, ascending at the tips, glabrous or slightly villous with short white hairs. Leaves usually close-set and imbricating, but sometimes distant on barren shoots, suberect, often incurved at the tips, 110–16 in. long, linear or linear-lingalate, obtuse, concave in front, convex on the back, grooved or striate or almost smooth, glabrous or nearly so when old, but the upper half of the margins and the apex ciliate when young. Flowers small, polygamo-diœcious, in 3–8-flowered heads at the tips of the branches, sunk amongst the uppermost leaves. Male perianth about ⅙ in. long, funnel-shaped, the lobes about ⅓ the length of the tube. Scales very variable, sometimes a single entire one at the base of each lobe, but more often the scale is 2-lobed or divided to the base into 2 distinct but closely approximate scales. Stamens with long slender filaments, the anthers almost reaching the top of the lobes. Ovary and style very small, abortive. Female (or hermaphrodite) perianth smaller and broader. Anthers much smaller, usually
