or slightly connate at the base, their tips at length recurved. Fruit broadly oblong or nearly globose; endocarp succulent; cells 3–6, 1-seeded. Seeds compressed.
A small genus of from 10 to 15 species, most abundant in New Caledonia, but extending eastwards to Tahiti and southwards to Norfolk Island and New Zealand. The single species found in New Zealand is endemic.
1. M. Sinclairii, Seem. in Bonplandia, x. (1862) 295.—A very handsome round-headed small tree 8–25 ft. high; trunk 6–18 in. diam.; branches stout, brittle. Leaves very large, crowded towards the ends of the branches; petiole stout, 4–15 in. long; blade 10–20 in. long or more, oblong-obovate or oblong, obtuse, slightly cordate at the base, very coriaceous, smooth and shining, strongly veined; margins entire, slightly undulate, bordered with a stout vein. Panicles stout, erect, terminal, 6–18 in. long; branches jointed on the rhachis. Male flowers sessile in clusters of 4–8, with a broad bract at the base of each cluster. Calyx-limb obsolete. Petals 4, ovate-oblong. Stamens 4; filaments slender, exserted. Female flowers irregularly crowded, with a bract at the base of each. Calyx as in the males. Petals 4–5, ovate-triangular. Abortive stamens present. Styles 4–5, free to the base. Fruit ⅓–½ in. long, broadly oblong, succulent, black and shining, 4–5-celled. Seeds solitary in each cell, compressed, bony.—Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 104; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 121; Students' Fl. 220. Botryodendrum Sinclairii, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 97.
North Island: Three Kings Islands, T. F. C; Hen and Chickens (Taranga Islands), Hutton and Kirk! T. F. C. Puka. February–May.
The specimens on which Sir Joseph Hooker founded the species were obtained from a solitary tree planted by the Maoris at Paparaumu, in Whangaruru Harbour; but it is not known in an indigenous state on any part of the mainland, and must be considered one of the rarest species of the New Zealand flora. The Maoris state that it exists on the Poor Kiaights Islands, between Whangarei and the Bay of Islands, but I have seen no specimens from thence.
5. SCHEFFLERA, Forst.
Glabrous shrubs or small trees. Leaves alternate, digitately compound; leaflets serrulate. Flowers polygamous, in small umbels arranged in a racemose manner on the branches of a spreading panicle; pedicels not articulate. Calyx-limb minutely 5-toothed. Petals 5, valvate. Stamens 5. Disc large, with undulate margins. Ovary 5–10-celled; styles the same number as the cells, connate below, free and spreading above. Fruit subglobose, 5–10-celled; exocarp fleshy; seeds 1 in each cell.
In addition to the single New Zealand species, which is endemic, there are one or two in the Fiji Islands, and several in New Caledonia.
1. S. digitata, Forst. Char. Gen. 46.—A small tree 10–25 ft. high, with stout spreading branches. Leaves on sheathing petioles 4–9 in. long, digitately 7–10-foliolate; leaflets 3–7 in., petiolate,
