broad matted patches; branches rooting at the base, ascending at the tips, terete or obscurely tetragonous, usually bifariously pubescent but sometimes obscurely so. Leaves opposite, usually closeset, often imbricating, shortly petioled, ¼–½ in. long, oblong or oblong-obovate or ovate, obtuse, fleshy, glabrous, entire or remotely obscurely denticulate; petioles broad, almost sheathing, connate at the base. Flowers few towards the ends of the branches, almost sessile, small, 15 in. diam. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute. Petals 2-lobed to the middle. Stigma clavate. Capsules ⅓–¾ in. long, strict, perfectly glabrous; peduncles shorter or slightly longer than the leaves. Seeds minutely papillose.—Fl. Antarct. i. 10; Handb N.Z. Fl. 78; Haussk. Monog. Epilob. 295; Kirk, Students' Fl. 171.
Var. tasmanicum.—Pale-green, much more slender. Leaves ovate orovate-oblong, on longer petioles, usually more distinctly denticulate.—E. tasmanicum, Haussk. l.c. 296, t. 20, f. 84; Kirk, Students' Fl. 171.
South Island: Both varieties not uncommon in mountain districts, altitude 1500–5500 ft. Auckland and Campbell Islands: The typical form only, Hooker, Filhol! Kirk! Chapman! Antipodes Island: Kirk!
The slender creeping and rooting usually much-branched stems, oblong or obovate leaves narrowed into short petioles, the few small flowers, and the glabrous short-stalked capsules are the best marks of this species. Reduced forms of E. glabellum and its allies approach it very closely, but are much less prostrate and more hard and woody at the base. Professor Haussknecht's E. tasmanicum appears to me to be barely separable even as a variety.
7. E. pictum, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 538.—Stems few, slender, 8–10 in. high, decumbent and sparingly branched below, ascending or erect above, terete, finely and evenly pubescent, especially towards the tips of the branches. Lower leaves opposite, upper alternate, spreading, remote, ½–¾ in. long, linear-oblong to oblong or ovate-oblong, obtuse, sessile or shortly petioled, membranous, often blotched with grey, usually sharply and coarsely remotely denticulate. Flowers 2–6 towards the tips of the branches, small, pink, 15 in. diam. Calyx-lobes ovate-lanceolate, almost equalling the petals. Stigma narrow-clavate. Capsules 1–1½ in. long, slender, densely and evenly hoary-pubescent; peduncles short, never exceeding the leaves. Seeds smooth.—E. haloragifoliuni, Kirk, Students Fl. 177 (not of A. Cunn.).
South Island: Canterbury—Upper Waimakiriri, Kirk! T.F.C.; Craigieburn Mountains, Cockayne! Mount Cook District, T.F.C. Otago—Not uncommon in the mountain-valleys of the interior, Petrie! 1000–3000 ft. December–February.
Professor Haussknecht has suggested that this may be identical with Cunningham's E. haloragifolium (Precur. n. 552), an obscure plant gathered near the Waikare River, Bay of Islands, and this view has been adopted by Kirk in the "Students' Flora." But Cunningham's original description is so short and incomplete that it might stand for several species, and E. pictum has not yet been found in any locality in the North Island. Hooker referred E. haloragifolium to E. alsinoides, a plant not uncommon at the Bay of Islands, and it appears to me that this reduction is much more likely to prove correct.
