A small order, comprising 14 genera and about 200 species, mostly natives of the Northern Hemisphere, with few tropical or southern representatives. The order is of little economical importance, but many of the species are cultivated in gardens for the beauty or fragrance of their flowers, as the various kinds of honeysuckles and woodbines, &c. The single New Zealand genus is endemic.
1. ALSEUOSMIA, A. Cunn.
Evergreen shrubs, usually of small size; branchlets slender. Leaves alternate, petioled, entire or toothed, very variable in shape, coriaceous or almost membranous; stipules wanting. Flowers axillary, solitary or fascicled, very sweet-scented; pedicels bracteolate at the base. Calyx-tube ovoid; limb deeply 4–5-lobed, deciduous. Corolla tubular or funnel-shaped; tube long, equal at the base; limb of 4–5 spreading lobes; margin of lobes inflexed, toothed or lobulate. Stamens 4–5, inserted near the mouth of the corolla; filaments short; anthers oblong. Ovary 2-celled; style filiform; stigma clavate; ovules numerous in each cell, in a double row on axile placentas. Berry ovoid or oblong, 2-celled, crimson. Seeds several in each cell, angular; testa bony.
A small genus of four species, confined to New Zealand, and differing from the rest of the order in the alternate leaves. The species are exceedingly variable and difficult of discrimination.
| Leaves large, 3–7 in. Flowers 1–1½ in. long, usually 5-merous | 1. A. macrophylla. |
| Leaves 1–4 in., ovate-oblong to linear-oblong. Flowers ½–¾ in., usually 4-merous | 2. A. quercifolia. |
| Leaves ½–2 in., orbicular to obovate-oblong. Flowers ⅓–½ in. | 3. A. Banksii. |
| Leaves ½–3 in., narrow-linear to lanceolate. Flowers ½–⅔ in. | 4. A. linariifolia. |
1. A. macrophylla, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 494.—A perfectly glabrous much-branched shrub 4–8 ft. high. Leaves 3–7 in. long, obovate or obovate-lanceolate to linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into a short stout petiole, remotely sinuate-dentate or nearly entire, rather coriaceous. Flowers solitary or in fascicles of 2–4, large, 1–1½ in. long, bright-crimson. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute. Corolla-lobes 5, rarely 4, margins fimbriate or toothed. Berry oblong, crimson, ⅓–½ in. long.—Raoul, Choix, 46; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 102, t. 23; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 109; Kirk, Students' Fl. 227.
North Island: Abundant in woods from the North Cape to the East Cape, rare and local further south. South Island: Apparently very rare. Marlborough, J. Rutland! Collingwood, Dall! Kelly's Creek, Westland, Cockayne! Sea-level to 3200 ft. September–November.
A very beautiful and exceedingly fragrant plant, well worthy of general cultivation. It is easily distinguished from all the other species by the large flowers.
2. A. quercifolia, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 493.—A small slender sparingly branched shrub 1–5 ft. high. Leaves excessively variable in size and shape, 1–5 in. long, ovate-oblong, elliptic-oblong, obovate-lanceolate, or linear-oblong, obtuse or acute, narrowed into
