Trees or shrubs, often aromatic. (Cassytha is a leafless parasitic climber.) Leaves alternate, rarely opposite, usually simple and entire, often gland-dotted; stipules wanting. Flowers regular, hermaphrodite or unisexual, generally small, usually in axillary cymes or panicles or clusters. Perianth inferior, herbaceous or coloured, deeply cut into 4–8 (usually 6) imbricate segments. Stamens usually twice the number of the perianth-segments, inserted in 2–3 series on the perianth-tube, all fertile or some reduced to staminodia; filaments flattened, naked or provided with 2 glands at the base; anther-cells 2–4, opening by upturned valves. Ovary free, 1-celled; style simple, terminal; stigma capitate, entire or lobed; ovule solitary, pendulous, anatropous. Fruit a drupe or berry, rarely dry, free or enclosed in the perianth. Seed solitary, pendulous; albumen wanting; embryo with large plano-convex cotyledons, radicle minute, superior.

An important order, having its headquarters in tropical America and Asia, less common in tropical Africa or in Australia and the Pacific islands, while few species penetrate into either the north or south temperate zones. Genera, 35; species approaching 900. The order includes many useful plants, the chief of which are the camphor laurel, cinnamon, alligator pear, sassafras, &c The timber of not a few species is highly valued on account of its toughness and fine and solid grain. The three New Zealand genera are all widely diffused in tropical regions.

Trees. Flowers hermaphrodite, panicled. Three inner anthers extrorse	1. Beilschmiedia.
Trees. Flowers diœcious, umbellate; umbels involucrate. Anthers all introrse	2. LitsÆa.
Leafless parasitic twining herbs	3. Cassytha.

1. Beilschmiedia, Nees.

Trees or shrubs. Leaves alternate or opposite, penninerved. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, panicled or fascicled. Perianth-tube short; limb with 6 subequal segments. Perfect stamens 9 in 3 page 602series; the 2 outer series with introrse anthers and eglandular filaments; the third series with extrorse anthers and filaments 2-glandular at the base; an inner fourth series of 3 staminodia present. Ovary not immersed in the perianth-tube, the perianth ultimately wholly deciduous. Fruit an oblong or ovoid or globose berry.

A small genus, comprising about 20 species, scattered through tropical Asia and Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and tropical America. The two species found in New Zealand are endemic. Hooker's genus Nesodaphne, which was formed for their reception, is now merged with Beilschmiedia.

Branches stout, clothed with red-brown tomentum. Leaves obovate	1. B. Tarairi.
Branches slender, glabrous or nearly so. Leaves lanceo. late	2. B. Tawa.

2. LitsÆa, Lam.

Trees or shrubs. Leases alternate or rarely opposite, penni-nerved or triplinerved; leaf-buds naked or scaly. Flowers diœcious, in 4–6- or rarely many-flowered umbels; umbels axillary or fascicled or racemose, each one enclosed before the expansion of the flowers within a globose involucre; involucral scales 4–6, broad, concave. Perianth-tube ovoid or campanulate or scarcely conspicuous; limb with 4–6 segments, rarely more or fewer. Male flowers: Stamens usually 9–12; the filaments of the inner row or all glandular at the base; anthers all introrse, 4-celled. Ovary rudimentary. Female flowers: Staminodia present. Ovary oblong or ovoid, narrowed into the style; stigma usually dilated and irregularly lobed. Fruit a more or less succulent berry, seated on the usually enlarged perianth-tube.

Species about 150, most abundant in tropical and eastern Asia, the Malayan and Pacific islands, and Australia, rare in Africa and America. The single species found in New Zealand is endemic therein.

• 1. L. calicaris, Benth. and Hook. f. ex T. Kirk Forest Fl. t. 10.—A perfectly glabrous closely branched leafy tree 30–40 ft. high, with a trunk 1½–2½ ft. diam; bark dark greyish - brown. Leaves alternate, petiolate, 2–5 in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or narrowed into an obtuse point, quite entire, firm but hardly coriaceous, often glaucous beneath; petioles ½–1 in. long. Flowers often very abundantly produced, in 4–5-flowered involucrate umbels arranged in short axillary racemes. Involucral leaves usually 4. Pedicels short, silky. Perianth-segments 5–8, oblong or ovate, obtuse. Stamens about 12; filaments slender, all with 2 stipitate glands near the base. Female flowers rather smaller and less numerous than the males. Staminodia flattened, each 2-glandular near the base. Ovary ovoid; stigma dilated, irregularly 3-lobed. Berry oblong-ovoid, ¾ in. long, reddish, seated in a flat cup-shaped disc composed of the enlarged perianth-tube.—Tetran-thera calicaris, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 216; Handb. N.Z. Fl 238. T. Tangao, B. Cunn. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 353. Laurus calicaris, Sol. ex A. Cunn. Precur. n. 353; Raoul, Choix, 42.

  North Island: Not uncommon in forests from the North Cape southwards to Rotorua and the East Cape. Sea-level to 2000 ft. Mangeao; Tangeao. September–October.

  Wood strong, tough, and elastic, suitable for all classes of coopers' or wheelwrights' work, for ships' blocks, &c.

3. Cassytha, Linn.

Leafless twining parasites, attaching themselves to living shrubs or trees by means of small suckers; stems terete, wiry or filiform. Leaves replaced by minute scales. Flowers small, hermaphrodite, in spikes or heads or racemes, each flower 3-bracteolate. Perianth-tube turbinate or ovoid; segments of the limb 6, the 3 outer much smaller. Perfect stamens usually 9 in 3 series; the two outer series either ail perfect or rarely the second series reduced to staminodia; anthers introrse; filaments eglandular; the third series all perfect with extrorse anthers, the filaments 2-glandular at the base; an inner fourth series of 3 staminodia present. Ovary almost free from the perianth at the time of flowering; stigma small. Fruit altogether enclosed, in the enlarged and succulent perianth-tube, crowned by the persistent limb. Seed with a membranous testa. Embryo with thick fleshy cotyledons, which are distinct in the young state, but confluent when mature.

A very remarkable genus of parasitic plants with the habit of Cuscuta. Species about 15, 1 of which is very widely distributed, 1 or 2 are found in South Afiica, and 1 in Borneo; the remainder are all Australian, 1 of them being the same as the New Zealand species.

• 1. C. paniculata, R. Br. Prodr. 404.—Stems pale yellow-green, much branched, several feet in length, covering small shrubs with dense interwoven masses; branches 1/10 in. diam., glabrous or minutely silky at the very tips; scales minute, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, membranous. Spikes numerous, often branched, ½–2 in. long. Flowers minute, distant, sessile, about 1/10 in. diam. Perianth glabrous; the 3 outer segments very small; the inner obtuse. Stamens 9, all perfect. Ovary glabrous. Fruit globose, about the size of a pea, enclosed in the enlarged and succulent perianth-tube, obscurely 6-ribbed or quite smooth.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 218; Handb. N.Z. Fl 239; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 311.

  North Island: Extreme northern peninsula, from the North Cape to Ahipara and Mongonui, abundant. December–March.