# Manual of the New Zealand Flora/Chloranthaceæ

Order LVII. CHLORANTHACEÆ.
Shrubs or trees, rarely herbs, generally aromatic. Leaves opposite, usually toothed, petioles often connate at the base; stipules small, subulate. Flowers small, unisexual, in terminal or axillary spikes or panicles. Perianth wanting (rarely present in the female flowers). Stamens either 1 or 3 connate; filaments shore and thick; anthers 2-celled, or when there are 3 the lateral 1-celled. Ovary 1-celled; stigma either sessile or style very short; ovule solitary, orthotropous, pendulous from the top of the cell. Fruit a small globose or ovoid drupe. Seed pendulous; testa membranous; albumen copious, fleshy; embryo minute, remote from the hilum, radicle inferior.
A small and unimportant order, comprising 3 genera and 25 species, mostly tropical or subtropical.
1. ASCARINA, Forst.
Aromatic shrubs or small trees; branchlets jointed at the nodes. Leaves opposite, serrate, penniveined; petioles connate at the base into a short sheath; stipules small, subulate. Flowers minute, diœcious, arranged in simple or branched spikes. Perianth wanting in both sexes. Male flowers: Stamen solitary; anther sessile, linear-oblong, cylindric, 2-celled; cells parallel, dehiscing longitudinally. Female flowers: Ovary naked, ovoid or subglobose; stigma sessile, truncate. Drupe small, putamen fragile.
A small genus of three species, all very closely allied, found in New Zealand and the Pacific islands from New Caledonia eastwards to Tahiti.
| Leaves 2–4 in., ovate- or oblong-lanceolate, acuminate. Anthers ⅛ in. long | 1. A. lanceolata. |
| Leaves 1–2 in., elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse or acute. Anthers 1/10 in. long | 2. A. lucida. |
1. A. lanceolata, Hook. f. in Journ. Linn. Soc. (1856) 127.—A perfectly glabrous bushy shrub or small tree 6–15 ft. high, rarely more; branches dark purplish-red, striate when dry. Leaves 2–4 in. long including the petiole, ovate-lanceolate or oblong-lanceo​late, acuminate, narrowed into the petiole, dark-green and glossy above, paler beneath; margins coarsely serrate, the teeth often curved and acute; petioles ½–¾ in. long. Spikes closely branched in a racemiform manner, 1–2 in. long; branches opposite, springing from the axils of a pair of connate bracts. Male flowers alone seen, rather closely placed, each one in the axil of a broadly ovate acute bract, and with a smaller bracteole on each side. Anther sessile, ⅛ in. long, linear-oblong, cylindric; connective thick, produced at the tip into a minute usually recurved apiculus.
Kermadec Islands: Sunday Island, not uncommon on the hills, McGillivray, T.F.C. August–September.
This was reduced to A. lucida in the Handbook, but appears to be sufficiently distinct in the larger and narrower more acuminate leaves, and larger anthers. The same species, or a very close ally, is found in Fiji, Samoa, and Rarotonga.
2. A. lucida, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 228.—A perfectly glabrous closely branched shrub or small tree 10–25 ft. high, with a trunk 6–12 in. diam.; branches slender, terete, striate when dry, dark purplish-red. Leaves 1–2 in. long including the petiole, obovate-oblong to elliptic-oblong or linear-oblong, obtuse or acute, cuneate at the base, dark-green and glossy above, often glaucous beneath, margins coarsely and often obtusely serrate; petioles ⅓ in. long. Spikes laxly branched in a racemiform manner, the females more slender and more sparingly divided than the males; branches opposite, pendulous. Flowers minute, alternate, each one in the axil of a broadly ovate acute bract with a smaller bracteole on each side. Anther sessile, oblong, 1/10 in. long. Female flowers sometimes 2 or 3 together. Ovary broadly ovoid; stigma very broad, truncate. Ripe fruit not seen.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 258. A. rubricaulis, Solms in D.C. Prodr. xvi. 1, 478 (in part).
North Island: Auckland—Hokianga, Buchanan; Bay of Islands, Kirk; Whangarei, H. Carse, T.F.C.; Little Barrier Island, T.F.C.; Coromandel, Petrie! Waitakarei Ranges, T.F.C.; near Waihi, Petrie! Taranaki—Mount Egmont, Buchanan. Wellington—Wairarapa Valley, Colenso! South Island: Marlborough—Queen Charlotte Sound, Banks and Solander; Keneperu, J. Rutland! Nelson—Cape Foulwind, W. Townson! Westland—R. Helms. Otago—Common in the sounds of the south-west coast, Hector! Preservation Inlet, Kirk! Stewart Island: C. Traill. Sea-level to 2500 ft. September–November.
Although this extends through almost the whole length of the colony it is remarkably local, rarely occurring in any quantity. It is perhaps more abundant in the south-west of Otago than in any other locality.