lanceolate to obovate-lanceolate or linear-oblong, acute or acuminate or almost pungent, rarely obtuse, sessile, glabrous, 3–7-nerved; margins minutely denticulate or ciliolate. Flowers minute, greenish-white, in 6–12-flowered axillary or terminal drooping spikes shorter or longer than the leaves. Bracts and calyx-lobes obtuse, striate, margins ciliolate. Corolla-lobes ovate-triangular, acute. Drupe small, ⅛–⅙ in. long, oblong, red.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 408; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 164; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 177. L. brevibarbis, Stch. in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc. xxxii. (1859) i. 14. Epacris fasciculata, Forst. Prodr. n. 72.
North and South Islands: Abundant from the North Cape as far south as Canterbury. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Mingimingi. September-November.
Mr. Buchanan has recorded this in his florula of Otago (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. i.), but I have seen no specimens from thence, and it is not mentioned in either Petrie's or Kirk's lists.
2. L. Richei, R. Br. Prodr. 541.—A slender erect muchbranched shrub 4–6 ft. high or more; branches glabrous or slightly puberulous, often fascicled. Leaves ½–1 in. long, linear-lanceolate or oblanceolate, acute or acuminate, narrowed to a sessile base, convex, glaucous beneath, with 3–5 faint nerves; margins recurved. Flowers small, ⅛ in. diam, white, in subterminal short and dense many-flowered spikes. Bracts striate, barely half the length of the calyx. Calyx-lobes oblong, obtuse. Corolla-tube short, not equalling the calyx; lobes linear-oblong, densely bearded within. Drupe broadly ovoid, 3–5-celled.—F. Muell. Veg. Chath. Is. 45; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 735; Benth. Fl. Austral. iv. 186.
Chatham Islands: Not uncommon in sandy soil near the sea, Travers! Capt. G. Mair! Miss Seddon! Cockayne and Cox!
This is a common plant in extra-tropical Australia and Tasmania, but so far has been found nowhere in the New Zealand area except in the Chatham Islands.
3. L. Fraseri, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 409.—A small shrubby plant 2–6 in. high, rarely more, branching from the base; branches decumbent below, erect or ascending above, often curved, leafy, glabrous or minutely puberulous towards the tips. Leaves erect, close-set, imbricating, ⅕–⅓ in. long, obovate-oblong or linear-oblong, suddenly contracted into a fine rigid pungent point, glabrous and shining above, finely nerved beneath, the nerves branching outwards; margins thin, scarious, cartilaginous, finely ciliolate. Flowers axillary and solitary, sessile, large for the size of the plant, ¼–½ in. long, sweet-scented. Bracts minute, broad, apiculate. Calyx-lobes acute. Corolla-tube cylindrical, more than twice as long as the calyx; lobes short, acute, densely bearded within. Drupe large, ⅓ in. long or more, broadly oblong, yellowish-orange.—Hook.
