superne concavo; epicarpium crustaceum; endocarpium corneum v. osseum; sarcocarpium suberosum. Loculi 3–4, valde compressi, axi contrarii. Semen parvum, late ovato-ellipticum, plano-compressum, versus axin obtuse angulatum, loculum totum implens. Testa membranacca, pallide fusca. Albumen copiosum, farinaceo-corneum, albidum. Embryo minutissimus, pyriformis; radicula supera, bilo proxima; cotyledones breves, divaricatæ, obtusæ.
One of the most handsome and singular of the vegetable productions in the group of islands it inhabits, which certainly contains a greater proportion of large and beautiful plants, relatively to the whole vegetation, than any country with which I am acquainted. Growing in large orbicular masses, on rocks and banks near the sea, or amongst the dense and gloomy vegetation of the woods, its copious bright green foliage and large umbels of waxy flowers, often nearly a foot in diameter, have a most striking appearance. The pretty black berries on the white and withered stalks of the former year's umbels form a curious contrast to the shining waxy appearance of the rest of the inflorescence. The whole plant has a heavy and rather disagreeable rank smell, common to many of its Nat. Order, but is nevertheless greedily eaten by goats, pigs and rabbits.
Beautiful as is the plate of Aralia polaris in the French South Polar Voyage above quoted, and faithfully as it represents the leaf and umbel, the insertion of both immediately upon the rooting stem, without the intervention of branches, and the absence of the great ligules, are quite unlike what is exhibited by my specimens. It is possible that the letter-press may account for this and some other apparent inaccuracies; but although the plates have been in our possession for nearly a twelvemonth, I cannot learn that any descriptive matter has hitherto appeared.—The above particulars of the plant, and the analysis, were drawn up from living specimens; and although the drawings, made at the same time from the recent plant, are not of sufficient novelty to justify their introduction amongst the plates of the present work, I have deemed it desirable to give them in the 'Icones Plantarum' (vol. viii. tab. 701. ined.).
XIV. RUBIACEÆ, Juss.
1. Coprosma fœtidissima, Forst.; arborea, glaberrima, foliis petiolatis exacte elliptico-oblongis obtusis apicibus vix mucronatis, floribus terminalibus solitariis, baccis subrotundis sessilibus.—(Tab. XIII.) C. fœtidissima, Forst. Prodr. n. 138. DeC. Prodr. vol. iv. p. 578. A. Rich. Flor. Nov. Zel. p. 261. A. Cunn. Prodr. Flor. Nov. Zel. l.c. vol. ii. p. 206.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group; in the woods near the sea, also ascending in the valleys to 900 feet.
This is a perfectly distinct plant, though confounded by Cunningham (as his specimens in Herb. Heward prove) with the C. lucida, Forst. It is probably a very abundant species in the middle and southern islands of New Zealand, where, however, it had until quite lately been gathered by Forster alone, in Queen Charlotte's Sound. It has been more recently detected on the mountainous interior of the Northern Island by Mr. Colenso, whose specimens (n. 117) are rather less robust, with the leaves narrower and more membranaceous. It is one of the few large-leaved species with truly solitary and sessile flowers and berries. In this group of islands it often attains a height of 20 feet, with a trunk 1½; foot in diameter. The whole plant, especially when bruised or when drying, exhales an exceedingly fetid odour, much resembling that of the flowers of Hibbertia volubilis. I brought on board the "Erebus" specimens of this with other plants, late one evening, and finding that there were more tender species, which took a considerable time to lay in paper, than I could well get through that night, I locked this Coprosma in a small close cabin until I should have leisure to press it, but before half an hour had elapsed the smell was intolerable, and had pervaded the whole of the lower deck. The leaves, though very constant in form, vary much in size, and in the alpine specimens are scarcely more than ½–⅓ inch long.
