Calyx 5-toothed or -lobed. Corolla-tube short; limb oblique, 2-lipped; lobes 5, the lowest one usually larger than the rest. Stamens 4, didynamous, usually exserted; anther-cells distinct. Ovary 2–4-celled; ovules solltary or 2 in each cell; style filiform, shortly 2-lobed. Drupe globose or obovoid, more or less succulent; endocarp bony, usually 4-celled. Seeds obovate or oblong, albumen wanting.
A large genus of about 70 species, scattered through most tropical and subtropical regions, rare or absent in temperate climates. The New Zealand species is endemic.
1. V. lucens, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxix. (1897) 525.—A large handsome tree 40–60 ft. high, with a massive trunk 2–5 ft. diam., and a large crown of spreading branches; branchlets tetragonous, glabrous. Leaves on long stout petioles 3–5 in. long; leaflets 3–5, shortly petioled, 2–5 in. long, elliptic-oblong or obovate, abruptly acute or almost acuminate, entire, quite glabrous, darkgreen and glossy. Flowers abundantly produced, dull-red, about 1 in. long, arranged in 4–15-flowered dichotomously branched axillary panicles. Calyx short, cup-shaped, truncate or obscurely 5-toothed. Corolla pubescent, 2-lipped; upper lip arched, entire or bifid; lower lip deflexed, 3-lobed. Drupe subglobose, bright-red, ⅔–¾ in. diam.; endocarp bony, 4-celled; seeds seldom more than 1 or 2.—V. littoralis, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 390 (not of Decaisne); Raoul, Choix, 43; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 419, 420; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 203; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 223; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 105.
North Island: Abundant from the North Cape to the Waikato and Upper Thames, then sparingly southwards to Mahia Peninsula and Cape Egmont. Sea-level to 2500 ft. Puriri; Kauere. June–October.
A well-known tree, producing the most valuable hardwood in the colony, extensively used for all purposes requiring great strength and durability, as railway-sleepers, the framework of bridges, piles, house-blocks, &c. Also greatly employed for furniture and cabinetwork, and quite equal in figure and general appearance to the best Italian or American walnut.
2. TEUCRIDIUM, Hook. f.
A much-branched shrub; branchlets slender, 4-angled. Leaves small, opposite, petiolate, entire. Flowers axillary, solitary. Calyx broadly campanulate, 5-lobed; lobes acute. Corolla-tube short: limb oblique, spreading, 2-lipped, 5-lobed; the lower lobe the largest. Stamens 4, didynamous, attached to the base of the corolla-tube, far exserted; anthers 1-celled. Ovary villous at the tip, 4-lobed, imperfectly 4-celled; ovules 1 in each cell, pendulous; style slender, arcuate, 2-fid; branches subulate, shortly stigmatose. Fruit small, sunk in the persistent calyx, 4-lobed to the middle, ultimately splitting into 4 hispid pyrenes. Seed solitary in each pyrene, laterally affixed; albumen wanting; cotyledons large.
