South Island: Nelson—Fagus forest in the Maitai Valley, T.F.C., Kingsley! Marlborough—Pelorus and Tinline Valleys, abundant, Macmahon! December–February.
Widely distributed in Australia and Tasmania.
2. P. alpina, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiv. (1882) 300.—Perfectly glabrous, 2–5 in. high; branches numerous, decumbent or suberect, usually densely compacted and interlaced, rarely open, scarred, often somewhat woody at the base. Leaves all uniform, opposite, crowded, sessile or very shortly petiolate, ⅛–⅕ in. long, linear-oblong, obtuse, quite entire, smooth and veinless above; margins revolute, concealing the whole of the under-surface except the very thick and prominent midrib; stipules rather large, triangular. Flowers solitary in the axils of the upper leaves, forming short leafy heads, minute, greenish-white, dioecious; peduncles shorter than the leaves. Petals wanting in both sexes. Sepals 5, oblong, obtuse. Stamens shorter than the sepals; filaments slender. Ovary subglobose. 6-lobed, 3-celled. Capsule globose-depressed.—Hook. f. in Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 1366b.
South Island: Nelson—Mount Arthur, Mount Owen, T.F.C.; Mount Murchison, Townson! 3000–5000 ft. December–January.
3. ALEURITES, Forst.
Trees with stellate pubescence. Leaves alternate, petiolate, large, entire or 3–7-lobed. Flowers in terminal cymes, monœcious. Male flowers: Calyx splitting into 2–3 valvate segments. Petals 5, longer than the calyx. Stamens 8–20, on a central receptacle, 5 outer opposite the petals, alternating with 5 small glands; anthers adnate, cells parallel. Female flowers: Calyx and petals of the males. Ovary 2–5-celled; styles 2–5, bifid; ovules 1 in each cell. Fruit large, drupaceous; exocarp somewhat fleshy; endocarp 1–5-celled. Seeds large; testa thick, woody; cotyledons broad, flat.
A small genus of 3 species, natives of eastern Asia and the Pacific islands.
1. A. moluccana, Willd. Sp. Plant. iv. 590.—A handsome spreading tree 30–40 ft. high or more; young leaves and branches more or less clothed with pale or ferruginous stellate pubescence, almost glabrous when old. Leaves crowded towards the ends of the branches, 4–9 in. long, very variable in shape, ovate-lanceolate to broadly rhomboid-ovate, obtuse or acute, entire or 3–5- or 7-lobed. Cymes broad, much branched, tomentose; pedicels short. Flowers numerous, white. Calyx very small, tomentose. Petals about ¼ in. long, obovate, bearded at the base. Stamens 15–20; filaments short, hairy. Female flowers fewer and smaller than the males. Fruit 2 in. diam., smooth, fleshy; seeds 1–2, rarely 3; testa rugose.—Benth. Fl. Austral. vi. 128; Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 172. A. triloba, Forst. Char. Gen. 112, t. 56.
