fruit is ripe, and occasionally the capsule may be slightly succulent, thus breaking down the distinction between Pernettya and Gaultheria. One of the species extends to Tasmania, the remainder are endemic.
| * Leaves alternate. Flowers axillary, the tips of the branches sometimes forming leafy racemes | |
| Stems erect or prostrate. Leaves very variable, orbicular to linear-oblong | 1. G. antipoda. |
| Stems slender, flexuous, often intertwined. Leaves linear-lanceolate | 2. G. perplexa. |
| ** Leaves alternate. Flowers in axillary and terminal racemes. | |
| Leaves oblong-lanceolate to broad-oblong | 3. G. rupestris. |
| Leaves ovate oblong, cordate at the base | 4. G. fagifolia. |
| *** Leaves opposite. Flowers in axillary and terminal often compound racemes. | |
| Leaves ovate or ovate-oblong, cordate at the base, sessile | 5. G. oppositifolia. |
1. G. antipoda, Forst. Prodr. n. 196.—An erect or prostrate much or sparingly branched rigid shrub, very variable in size and habit, on the mountains frequently only a few inches high, in lowland situations 2–4 ft. or more. Branches stout, sometimes glabrous, but usually more or less clothed with blackish or yellow-brown bristles intermixed with a short and fine white pubescence. Leaves alternate, shortly petiolate, variable in size, in large-leaved forms ⅓–⅔ in., in dwarfed mountain states ⅙–⅓ in., orbicular or broadly oblong to oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate; obtuse or acute, bluntly serrate, very thick and coriaceous, conspicuously veined, glabrous except the petioles, which are hispid-pubescent. Flowers small, white or red, axillary and solitary, often crowded at the ends of the branches, which thus form leafy racemes; peduncles short, curved, bracteolate, pubescent. Calyx 5- or rarely 6-lobed; lobes ovate-oblong, acute. Corolla 110–18 in. long. Capsule usually included in the enlarged and succulent calyx-lobes, forming a red or white globose berry-like fruit ½ in. diam., but frequently the lobes remain dry and unaltered.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 211, t. 28; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 417; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 161; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 174.
Var. erecta.—Erect, much branched. Leaves large, ½–¾ in., broadly oblong or orbicular.—G. epiphyta, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 474.
Var. fluviatilis, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 161.—Erect, virgately branched. Leaves large, ⅓–⅔ in., oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate. Flowers small, almost racemed, on longer and more slender pedicels.—G. fluviatilis, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 419.
Var. depressa, Hook. f. l.c.—Depressed or prostrate; branches creeping and rooting at the base, clothed with fulvous bristles. Leaves ¼–½ in., orbicular to elliptical or oblong. Flowers axillary. Berry large, ½–⅔ in. diam.—Fl. Tasm. i. 241, t. 73a. G. depressa, Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. (1847) 267.
