Icones Plantarum Or Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks, of New Or Rare Plants

Fig. 1, 2. Flowers. /. 3. Branch of the panicle, with immature fruits. /. 4. Single fruit from ditto. /. 5. The same laid open. /. 6. Section of an immature seed : — magnified.

Hooker,William Jackson & Hooker, Joseph Dalton

Icones Plantarum: Or Figures, with Brief Descriptive Characters and Remarks, of New Or Rare Plants, Selected from the Author's Herbarium
Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, & Longman, 1843, Tab. DLXX

Alectron excelsum DC.

Alectryon excelsum. Gaertn. Fruct. v. 1, p. 216, t. 46.

De Cand. Prodr. v. 1, p. 616.
All. Cunn. Fl. Nov. Zel. in Tayl. Ann. Nat. Hist. v. 3,p. 318.

Euonymoides excelsa. Sol. mst. in Herb. Banks.

Hab. N. Zealand, Northern Island. Sir Joseph Banks, 1769. Banks of rivers and harbours, frequently within range of the tide. Wangaroa, &c. A. and R. Cunningham. Bay of Islands. Dr. Dieffenbach. Mr. Colenso. " Tetohi " of the natives.

Folia alterne pinnata cum impari, foliolis petiolulatis oblongo- ovatis, acuminatis, integerrimis, subtus pubescen tibus. Panículœ axillares terminalesque. Flores parvi. Stamina intense rubra.

The ripe fruit of this rare and little known genus I have not seen ; but to judge from a drawing made on the spot, and given me by Dr. Dieffenbach, its shape is very similar to the more advanced ovaries, represented at our figure 3 : this capsule bursts on one side, and a black, round, shining seed is protruded, enveloped in a very large scarlet fleshy arillus, whence, in conjunction with the crested fruit, arises the generic name
a Cоck.