A tall handsome tree, easily distinguished by its fastigiate mode of growth. The wood is beautifully variegated, reddish on a light-brown ground, and is much used for inlaying and cabinetwork, ornamental turnery, &c. For an account of the fertilisation of the flowers, see a paper by myself in Vol. II. of the Journal of the Australasian Association.
Order LXXI. THYMELÆACEÆ.
Shrubs or trees, rarely herbs, inner bark tough and stringy. Leaves opposite or alternate, simple and entire; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or rarely unisexual, in axillary or terminal heads or clusters, racemes or spikes, rarely solitary. Perianth inferior, gamophyllous, tubular or campanulate, often swollen at the base; throat usually furnished with scales or glands; limb with 4–5 imbricate lobes. Stamens as many or twice as many as the corolla-lobes (in Pimelea 2 only) inserted on the perianth-tube; anthers 2-celled. Ovary superior, 1-celled or rarely 2-celled; style short or long, terminal or lateral; stigma capitate; ovules solitary or 1 in each cell, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit indehiscent, a drupe or nut or berry. Seed pendulous, testa thin or crustaceous; albumen fleshy or wanting; embryo straight, cotyledons fleshy, radicle superior.
An order of moderate size, scattered over most parts of the world. Genera nearly 40, species estimated at 360. Many of the species are more or less acrid and caustic, as the spurge-laurel and mezereum, both of which are used in medicine. The roots of several furnish a yellow dye, and the tough inner bark of others is employed for cordage. Lagetta lintearia yields the well-known lace-bark. Several species of Daphne and Pimelea are well-known garden-plants. Of the 2 New Zealand genera, Pimelea is found elsewhere only in Australia, where it is largely developed; Drapetes has a wider range, extending to Australia and Borneo on one side and South America on the other.
| No scales within the perianth. Stamens 2 | 1. Pimelea. |
| Scales of the perianth 4 or 8. Stamens 4 | 2. Drapetes. |
Shrubs or undershrubs, rarely herbs. Leaves opposite or alternate, usually small. Flowers hermaphrodite or polygamo-diœcious, usually terminal and capitate. Perianth-tube cylindrical; limb spreading, rarely erect, 4-lobed; throat without scales but sometimes thickened or folded. Stamens 2, inserted on the throat of the perianth opposite the 2 outer lobes; filaments slender; anthers introrse. Hypogynous disc wanting. Ovary 1-celled; style elongated; stigma capitate; ovule solitary, pendulous. Fruit small, drupaceous, included in the base of the perianth; epicarp dry or fleshy; endocarp crustaceous. Seed pendulous, with a membranous testa; albumen scanty or copious.
