# Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Monimiaceæ

Additions and Corrections
Order LXVIII. MONIMIACEÆ.
Trees or shrubs, often aromatic. Leaves opposite, rarely alternate, simple; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, usually in short cymes or racemes. Perianth inferior, ​globose, hemispherical or subcampanulate, limb 4–15-toothed. Stamens usually indefinite, in one or many series on a disc lining the perianth-tube, all fertile or some reduced to staminodia; filaments short; anthers 2-celled, opening by slits or valves. Carpels usually many, rarely solitary, free, sessile on the base or sides of the perianth-tube, 1-celled; style long or short; stigma small; ovule solitary, erect or pendulous. Fruit of several (rarely only one) drupes or achenes, resting on the expanded receptacle or enclosed within the enlarged perianth. Seed solitary, testa membranous; albumen fleshy; embryo variable, radicle inferior or superior.
A small order, best represented in tropical South America, but also found in tropical Asia, the Mascarene Islands, Australia, and Polynesia. Genera 22; species estimated at 150. Of the 2 New Zealand genera, Hedycarya is found in Australasia and the Pacific islands, while Laurelia is confined to South America and New Zealand.
| Anthers opening by longitudinal slits. Ovule pendulous. Drupes stipitate | 1. Hedycarya. |
| Anthers opening by ascending valves. Ovule erect. Achenes with plumose styles | 2. Laurelia. |
1. HEDYCARYA, Forst.
Small trees or shrubs. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed. Flowers diœcious, in axillary cymes or racemes. Male flowers: Perianth broad, cup-shaped; segments 5–10, inflexed, more or less connate at the base. Stamens numerous, covering almost the whole of the disc; filaments very short or almost wanting; anthers 2-celled, dehiscing by introrse or lateral slits. Female flowers: Perianth similar to that of the males, but rather smaller. Staminodia wanting. Carpels numerous, covering the whole disc, sessile, terminated by a thick conical style; ovule pendulous, anatropous. Fruit of few or several drupes crowded on the top of the disc-shaped receptacle. Seed pendulous; albumen copious; embryo axile, radicle superior.
A genus of 8 or 10 species, one of which is endemic in New Zealand, and another in Australia, the remainder being natives of New Caledonia, Fiji, Samoa, and Tonga.
1. H. arborea, Forst. Char. Gen. 128, t. 64.—A small tree 20–40 ft. high with a trunk 9–20 in. diam. or more; bark dark-brown; branches ascending, pubescent at the tips. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 2–5 in. long including the petiole, linear-oblong to obovate-oblong or obovate, acute or obtuse, distantly coarsely serrate or rarely entire, coriaceous, dark-green above, paler beneath, glabrous or more or less pubescent, especially on the petiole and midrib beneath. Racemes axillary, often corymbosely branched, shorter than the leaves; pedicels variable in length, pubescent. ​Male perianth ⅓–½ in. diam., saucer-shaped, pubescent. Stamens very numerous; anthers sessile, pubescent along the back. Female perianth ¼ in. across. Carpels 8–20. Drupes 4–10, crowded, stipitate, -g-in. long, oblong, obtuse, bright-red, succulent; endocarp hard, crustaceous.—H. dentata, Forst. Prodr. n. 379; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 354; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 336; Raoul, Choix, 30, t. 30; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 219; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 240; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 110. H. scabra, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 337. Zanthoxylum novæ-zealandiæ, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 291, t. 33.
North and South Islands: Abundant in woods from the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape to Banks Peninsula and Milford Sound. Sea-level to 2500ft. Porokaiwhiri. October–November.
The specific name arborea was applied in J. and G. Forster's "Characteres Generum," published in 1776, and must therefore take precedence over that of dentata, published by G. Forster in the "Prodromus" in 1786.
2. LAURELIA, Juss.
Tall aromatic forest-trees. Leaves opposite, coriaceous. Flowers diœcious or polygamous, in axillary cymes or racemes. Male flowers: Perianth-tube short, campanulate; lobes 5–12, in 2 or 3 series, subequal or ihe outer shorter. Stamens 6–12; filaments short. 2-glandular at the base; anthers 2-celled, opening by 2 upturned valves. Female flowers (or hermaphrodite): Perianth elongating after fertilisation, narrow-urceolate or tubular, ultimately 3–5-cleft. Stamens reduced to scales, or the outer series alone perfect. Carpels numerous, fusiform, pilose, narrowed into long plumose styles; ovule solitary, erect, anatropous. Achenes small, densely pilose, included in the enlarged perianth. Seed albuminous; embryo small, radicle inferior.
Besides the New Zealand species, which is endemic, there is a second found in Chili. The genus is very closely allied to the Australian Atherosperma, which principally differs in the flowers being seated within 2 cymbiform bracts.
1. L. novæ-zealandiæ, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 354.—A tall forest-tree, often attaining a height of 80 to 100 or even 120 ft.; trunk 4–6 ft. diam., usually with radiating buttresses at the base; bark pale, almost white; branchlets opposite, tetragonous, the younger ones faintly pubescent. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 1½–3 in. long, oblong or elliptic-oblong or obovate, obtuse, cuneate at the base, coarsely and bluntly serrate, coriaceous, dark-green and glossy above, paler beneath, glabrous or silky-pubescent when young. Flowers small, ⅕–¼ in. diam., polygamo-diœcious, in axillary racemes ½–1 in. long; pedicels silky, as is the perianth externally. Male perianth shallow, 5–6-partite almost to the base; stamens about 12. Female (or hermaphrodite) perianth with a swollen tube contracted above; segments of the limb short, spreading. Stamens either all reduced to erect scales, or some or all of the outer row perfect. ​Carpels numerous; styles long, silky. Fruiting-perianth much enlarged and elongated, often quite 1 in. long, narrow-urceolate, splitting irregularly into 3–5 valves. Achenes 6–12, narrowed into long plumose styles.—Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 218; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 71. Atherosperma novæ-zealandiæ, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 240.
North Island: Abundant in swampy forests. South Island: Various localities in Marlborough, Nelson, and Westland, rare and local. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Pukatea. October–November.
The wood is pale-brown, often prettily clouded with darker brown. It is strong and tough, and does not readily split, so that it is occasionally used for boat-building, and more rarely for cabinetwork. The leaver and young branches are aromatic when bruised.