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Manual of the New Zealand Flora.

2. Quintinia, A. D.C

2. Quintinia, A. D.C.

Shrubs or trees. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, exstipulate. Flowers small, in axillary or terminal many-flowered racemes. Calyx-tube obconic, adnate to the ovary; teeth 5, persistent. Petals 5, imbricate, deciduous. Stamens 5, filaments subulate. Ovary inferior, 3–5-celled, the free summit broadly conical, narrowed into a persistent 3–5-grooved style; stigma capitate, 3–5-lobed; ovules numerous. Capsule small, inferior or half-superior, coriaceous, obovoid, 1-celled, 3–5-valved, the valves separating up the furrows of the style. Seeds numerous, ascending; testa loose, winged.

In addition to the two following species, which are endemic in New Zealand, there are three others in Australia.

Leaves 3–6 in., linear-lanceolate to oblong 1. Q. serrata.

Leaves 3–8 in., obovate or elliptic-oblong 2. Q. acutifolia.

1.

Q. serrata, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 515.—A small tree 15–30 ft. high; branchlets, leaves, and racemes covered with minute lepidote scales, viscid when young. Leaves coriaceous, yellow-brown or reddish-brown when dry, 2–6 in. long, linear-lanceolate or linear-oblong or oblong, shortly petiolate, remotely and irregularly sinuate-serrate, acute or subacute, margins undulate. Racemes 2–4 in. long, erect, strict, axillary, many-flowered; pedicels short, ⅕ in. Flowers pale-lilac, ¼ in. diam. Capsule woody, ⅕ in. long.—Hook. Ic. Plant. t. 558; Raoul, Choix, 47; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 78; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 58; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 125; Students' Fl. 137. Q. elliptica, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 78; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59.

North Island: Common in forests from Mongonui to Taranaki and Hawke's Bay. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Tawheowheo. October–November.

Very variable in the size and shape of the leaves. On high mountain-ranges they become shorter, broader, and more obtuse, and the plant is then probably identical with Hooker's Q. elliptica. This is said to have elliptic or elliptic-lanceolate entire and obtuse leaves, and was collected in some locality on the East Coast by Colenso.

2.

Q. acutifolia, T. Kirk, Students' Fl. 137.—A small tree 20–40 ft. high, with a trunk 1–2 ft. diam. Branchlets, leaves, and racemes viscid and clothed with, lepidote scales. Leaves much broader and thinner than in Q. serrata, 3–7 in. long, 1–2 in. broad, page 136obovate or obovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, rarely oblong- or elliptic-lanceolate, narrowed into a short stout petiole, acute or subacute, remotely and often obscurely sinuate-serrate. Racemes 2–4 in. long, always much shorter than the leaves. Flowers much as in Q. serrata, but filaments usually shorter. Capsule slightly larger.—Q. serrata var. b, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 59; Kirk, Forest Fl. t. 125, f. 6, 7.

North Island: Little Barrier Island, T. F. C.; East Cape, Bishop Williams! South Island: West Coast, from Collingwood to Hokitika, Travers, Kirk! Helms! T. F. C.

An exceedingly puzzling plant. It is certainly connected by numerous intermediates with the typical state of Q. serrata, but its extreme forms appear much too distinct to admit of the two species being united. It is abundant on the Little Barrier Island, where the leaves attain an extreme length of 8 in. by a breadth of 2½ in. Southern specimens have smaller and more elliptic leaves.