7. D. laxifolium, Hook. f. in Hook. Lond. Journ. Bot. iv. (1845) 143.—A small prostrate shrub with very slender trailing branches 3–24 in. long; rarely suberect, and reaching a height of 2 ft. Leaves of young plants lax, spreading, ⅕–⅓ in. long, narrow-linear, acute, flat, curved; with the growth of the plant gradually becoming shorter, broader and thicker, and more closely set. Leaves of mature plants varying from ⅛ in. long, linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, spreading, to 125–120 in. long, broadly ovate or oblong, obtuse, keeled or rounded on the back, closely imbricate. Flowers diœcious or monœcious. Males solitary, terminal, sessile, ⅕–¼ in. long. Female flowers solitary and terminal. Nut small, erect, oblong, obtuse with a small curved apiculus, about ⅛ in. long; receptacle sometimes dry, sometimes swollen and succulent.—Ic. Plant. t. 825; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 234; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 259; Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. x. (1878) 388; Forest Fl. t. 87; Pilger in Pflanzenreich, iv. 5, 50.
North Island: Tongariro, Bidwill, Hector! T.F.C.; Ruapehu, Rev. F. H. Spencer! Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! H. Hill! Hamilton! South Island, Stewart Island: Common in mountain districts throughout. Usually between 2500 ft. and 4000 ft., but descends to sea-level in Stewart Island.
A very remarkable little species, probably the smallest known pine. Fruiting specimens can often be seen barely 3 in. in diameter, although the usual size of the plant is more. The minute imbricated leaves are often entirely wanting, even in old plants; at other times both imbricated and spreading leaves occur on the same branch.
5. PHYLLOCLADUS, L. C. Rich.
Trees or shrubs; branches often whorled; branchlets flattened and expanded into rigid and coriaceous toothed or lobed leaf-like cladodia. True leaves reduced to linear scales. Flowers monœcious or diœcious. Males fascicled at the tips of the branchlets, catkin-like, peduncled; each peduncle arising from the axil of a leafy bract. Staminal column oblong or cylindrical; anthers numerous, densely spirally imbricate, 2-celled; connective prolonged into an acute claw. Female flowers sessile on the margins of the cladodia or on peduncle-like divisions of the cladodia. Ovuliferous scales 1 or several, thick and fleshy, free. Ovule solitary, erect. Seeds erect, ovoid or oblong, compressed, protruding from the enlarged and fleshy scales, each seated within a cup-shaped aril. Cotyledons 2.
Besides the 3 species found in New Zealand, there is one in Tasmania, another in Borneo, and a sixth in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. The genus is remarkable for the flattened cladodes or leaf-like branchlets, which take the place of the true leaves, these last being reduced to linear deciduous scales. The New Zealand species have been excellently described and figured by Mr. Kirk in Vol. x. of the "Transactions of the New Zealand Institute" and in his "Forest Flora."
