Flora of New Zealand Series

Type locality: near Mercer. Type: A. Cheeseman, September 1881.

Shrub or tree up to 3-(5) m. tall; branches slender, us. fastigiate, bark grey; branchlets finely pubescent. Lvs fascicled on short branchlets; petioles slender, finely pubescent to pilose, winged 3-7 mm. long. Stipules small. obtuse, pubescent to pilose, with conspicuous sharp denticle. Lamina membr., glab. or nearly so above, sparsely pubescent below, broad-elliptic to obovate, acute to subacuminate, apiculate, cuneately narrowed to base, ± 9-10-(17) × 7-10 mm. Reticulated veins evident above and below. Fls solitary or 2-4 together, terminal on short branchlets. ♂ without calyx; corolla broad-funnelform, lobes ovate, acute, ± = tube. ♀ with minute calyx-teeth; corolla subcampanulate, lobes ± = tube. Drupe dark purple to almost black, globose, 4-5 mm. diam.

DIST.: N., S., St. Lowland to lower montane forest from Spirits' Bay southwards.

C. multiflora Col. in T.N.Z.I. 21, 1889, 86 was described from specimens collected in "Low woods south of Dannevirke . . . flowering November, fruiting April, 1887-88: W. C." The description includes: "Tree erect, 15 ft.-18 ft. high . . . ultimate branchlets thickly pubescent . . . Leaves small . . . very membranous and soft, suborbicular with apices retuse and cuspidate, and broadly-elliptic much acuminate with tips acute, 3-4 (sometimes 5) lines long . . . lower surface with scattered long whitish sub-strigillose weak hairs (young leaves very hairy below), margined and finely crenulate . . . stipules ovate-acuminate, very hairy . . . Flowers: fem. very numerous, axillary . . . Drupe small, globose, 11/2-2 lines diameter, slightly depressed at apex, dark-purple". The type specimen, in W, named on the cover by Colenso, is a well-branched piece with fls and frs; the lvs with well-marked apicles. The rank of varietas may prove appropriate.