Other formats

    TEI XML file   ePub eBook file  

Connect

    mail icontwitter iconBlogspot iconrss icon

Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

2. Alectryon, Gærtn

2. Alectryon, Gærtn.

A lofty tree. Leaves alternate, pinnate, exstipulate; leaflets entire or toothed. Flowers hermaphrodite or unisexual, in axillary or terminal many-flowered panicles. Calyx 4–5-lobed, villous within, lobes unequal, imbricate. Petals wanting. Disc small, 8-lobed. Stamens 5–8, inserted within the lobes of the disc; anthers large. Ovary obliquely obcordate, compressed, 1-celled; style short; stigma simple or 2–3-lobed; ovule solitary. Capsule coriaceous or almost woody, subglobose, turgid, with a flattened prominence or crest towards the top. Seed subglobose, arillate; testa crustaceous; cotyledons spirally coiled.

A monotypic genus confined to New Zealand.

1.A. excelsum, Gærtn. Fruct. i. 216, t. 46.—A handsome tree 30–60 ft. high, with a trunk 2 ft. in diam. or more; bark black; young branches, leaves below, inflorescence, and capsules clothed with silky ferruginous pubescence. Leaves unequally pinnate, 4–12 in. long; leaflets 4–6 pairs, shortly petioled, 2–4 in. long, obliquely ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, entire or obscurely remotely toothed, membranous. Panicles 4–12 in. long, much branched. Anthers large, dark-red. Ovary pilose. Capsule ⅓–½ in. long, opening transversely but irregularly. Seed large, almost globose, jet-black and shining, half imbedded in a bright scarlet fleshy cupshaped aril.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 598; Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 570; Raoul, Choix, 47; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 38; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 45; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 92, 93; Students' Fl. 95.

Var. grandis, Cheesem. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 409.—Leaves much larger, 12–18 in. long; leaflets 2–3 pairs, 5–7 in. long, oblong or ovate, obtuse or subacute, entire or with 2–3 coarse teeth. Flowers not seen, and only fragments of old capsules.

North and South Islands: North Cape to Banks Peninsula and Westland, common. Var. grandis: Three Kings Islands, T. F. C. Ascends to 2000 ft. Titoki. October–December.

Yields a tough and elastic timber, valuable for axe-handles, bullock-yokes, &c. The Maoris formerly extracted an oil from the seeds. Var. grandis is doubtless a distinct species, but in the absence of flowers and fruit I hesitate to describe it as such.

page 104