ovate, ovate-oblong, or ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate or even linear, generally sharply and coarsely dentate or serrate, more rarely obtusely serrate; in young plants often deeply and irregularly lobed or toothed; petioles slender. Flowers in axillary fascicles, snow-white, usually produced in great profusion. Peduncles jointed, pubescent. Carpels produced outwards and upwards into a membranous wing, longer than broad.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 30; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 31; Kirk, Students Fl. 71.
Can be most conveniently divided into the following 3 varieties, which possibly should have the rank of species:—
Var. a, vulgaris, Hook. f. l.c.—Leaves coriaceous, ovate, with large sharp teeth; blade 3–5 in. long; petioles 1–2 in. Leaves of young plants differing in size only. Fascicles 5–10-flowered. Flowers ½–¾ in. diam.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 565, 566; Kirk, Forest. Fl. t. 53. (H. Sinclairii, Hook. f. Handb. 31, appears to be a form of this with broader more coriaceous obtusely serrate leaves and 2–3-flowered fascicles.)
North Island: North Cape to the Waikato River, abundant. March–May.
Var. b, lanceolata, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 30.—Leaves of mature trees coriaceous, ovate-lanceolate oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, sharply toothed, 2–4 in. long; of young plants smaller, thinner, ovate or rounded-ovate, deeply and irregularly lobed and cut. Flowers smaller and fewer.—Kirk, Forest Fl. tt. 54 f. 2, 54a f. 1, 2, 55 f. A. H. sexstylosa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvii. (1885) 238. (Var. cratægifolia, Hook, f., is based upon the leaves of young trees.)
North and South Islands: Bay of Islands to Canterbury, but local north of the Waikato River. February–April.
Var. c, angustifolia, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 30.—Leaves of mature trees smaller, 1–2 in., rarely 1–3 in., membranous, oblong or linear-oblong, obtuse or acute, spinulose-toothed. Flowers smaller; fascicles 2–4-flowered. Leaves of young plants small, suborbicular or obovate-orbicular, 3–5-toothed at the tip, cuneate at the base.—Kirk, Forest Fl. tt. 54 f. 1, 54a f. 3, 54B f. 2, 55 f. 1, 2. H. angustifolia, Raoul, Choix de Plantes, 48, t. 26. Mr. Kirk's subspecies obtusifolia connects this with the previous variety.
North and South Islands: Hawke's Bay to Southland, not uncommon, ascending to 1500 ft. December–February.
An excellent account of the remarkable tendency to variation exhibited by this almost protean species will be found in Kirk's "Forest Flora." The Maoris apply the names hoihere or houhere to varieties a and b indifferently; the European settlers usually call all the forms "ribbon-wood" or "lacebark," names which are, unfortunately, also used for Plagianthus betulinus and Gaya Lyallii.
3. GAYA, H. B. K.
Herbs or shrubs, rarely small trees, usually tomentose with stellate hairs. Flowers pedunculate, axillary or terminal. Bracteoles wanting. Calyx 5-fid. Staminal column split at the apex into numerous filaments. Ovary many-celled; style-branches as many as the cells, filiform; stigmas capitate or truncate; ovules solitary in each cell. Mature carpels membranous, connivent at the apex, separable from the axis, 2-valved at the back and leaving a free
