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1. PLAGIANTHUS, Forst.

Shrubs or small trees, with very tough inner bark. Flowers uni- or bisexual. — Bracts 0, or small and distant from the calyx. Calyx 5-toothed or 5-fid. Staminal tube divided above into many short or long filaments. Ovary of 1 free, or many more or less united, 1-ovuled carpels; styles filiform or club-shaped, combined below, stigmatiferous towards the apex along the inner face. Fruit of 1 indehiscent or irregularly bursting carpel, or of many whorled round an axis. Seed pendulous.

A genus confined to Australia and New Zealand. [1]

1. P. divaricatus, Forst.; — Fl. N. Z. i. 29. A rigid, glabrous, much-branched shrub, with slender spreading tough branches, small fascicled leaves, and minute white flowers, succeeded by small globose capsules. Leaves 1/3-3/4 in. long, narrow-linear or subcuneate, obtuse, quite entire, 1-nerved. Flowers in axillary fascicles or 1-flowerd peduncles, shorter than the leaves, minutely bracteolate near the base. Calyx hemispherical, glabrous. Petals concave, oblong, small. Staminal tube with 6-10 large sessile anthers. Capsules the size of a peppercorn, globose, rarely didymous, oblique, downy, bursting irregularly. — Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3271.

Abundant in salt marshes throughout the islands as far south as Akaroa, Banks and Solander, etc.

2. P. betulinus, A. Cunn.; — Fl. N. Z. i. 29. A lofty tree, attaining 40-70 ft., when young a straggling bush with variable leaves. Leaves of young plants ¼-½ in. long, ovate-rounded, variously crenate and lobed, in full grown 1-2 in. long, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, rounded or cuneate at the base, coarsely crenate-serrate, or obtusely doubly serrate, membraneous, covered on both surfaces with small stellate hairs and reticulate venation; petiole slender. Panicles terminal, much branched, very many flowered, stellate-tomentose. Flowers small, ¼ in broad, white, on slender ebracteolate pedicels. Calyx campanulate. Petals linear-oblong, narrower in the male flowers. Staminal tube long, slender, exserted in the male, bearing many shortly-pedicelled anthers. Carpel 1. Capsule small, ovoid, acuminate, splitting down one side, 1-seeded. — P. betulinus and urticinus, A. Cunn.; Philippodendron regium, Poit. in Ann. Sc. Nat. ser. ii. 8. t. 3.

Abundant in forests throughout the islands, Banks and Solander, etc., as far south as Otago. “Ribbon-tree of Otago, wood worthless,” Buchanan.

3. P. Lyallii, [2, 3] Hook. f. — Hoheria Lyallii, Fl. N. Z. i. 31. t. 11. A small branching tree, 20-30 ft. high, with the young branches, inflorescence and leaves below covered with white stellate down. Leaves 2-4 in. long, ovate-cordata, acuminate, deeply doubly crenate, glabrous above; petioles ½-1½ in. Flowers large, ¾ in broad, white, axillary; peduncles 1-flowered, solitary or fascicled, ebracteolate, about as long as the petioles. Calyx broadly campanulate. Petals obliquely obovate-cuneate, obscurely notched on one side towards the apex. Staminal tube short, with many long filiform filaments. Ovary about 10-celled; style slender, divided into as many filiform branches, stigmatose on the inner surface towards the apex. Fruit a depressed sphere, breaking up into 10 compressed reniform membraneous carpels. Seed much compressed.

In mountain districts throughout the Middle Island [4], from Nelson to Milford Sound; western districts of Otago, fringing the Fagus forest, Hector and Buchanan. Mr. Haast informs me that this forms a deciduous tree at and above 3000 ft., but is evergreen below that level; in autumn its naked branches and yellow foliage give a peculiar colour to the landscape at the higher elevation.

Appendix: Plagianthus betulinus. — Chatham Island, W. Travers.

[1] Plagianthus, as currently circumscribed, is restricted to New Zealand, the Australian species now being placed in Lawrencia, Asterotrichion or Gynatrix.
[2] Now placed in Hoheria.
[3] This species is now divided between H. lyallii and H. glabrata. Therefore this description is not necessarily accurate for H. lyallii.
[4] Now universally known as South Island.

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