6. DRACOPHYLLUM, Labill.
Erect or prostrate shrubs, or more rarely small trees; branches ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves. Leaves crowded at the ends of the branches or imbricate along them, broad and sheathing at the base, above that suddenly contracted into a very narrow linear rigid or grassy usually concave blade. Flowers small, white or red, in terminal or lateral panicles or racemes or spikes, rarely solitary. Sepals 5, ovate or lanceolate, persistent. Corolla cylindric or campanulate; lobes 5, spreading, imbricate, often incurved at the tips. Stamens hypogynous, or the filaments adnate to the corolla-tube; anthers usually included in the tube, attached at or near the middle. Hypogynous scales 5, free. Ovary 5-ceIled; style inserted in a depression at the top of the ovary; stigma small, or larger and 5-lobed; ovules numerous, attached to a decurved placenta in the inner angle of the cell. Capsule 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved. Seeds numerous.
In addition to the 18 species found in New Zealand, all of which are endemic, there are 10 in Australia and Tasmania, and 5 in New Caledonia. The student will find the species exceedingly difficult of discrimination, especially those of section B, where they appear to pass into one another by small gradations, and where the chief distinctive characters available are the highly variable ones of size, habit, and foliage.
| A. Flowers panicled. Calyx small, much shorter than the corolla-tube, and always much less than the ripe capsule. | |
| Shrub or small tree 8–20 ft. high. Leaves 10–18 in., 1–1½ in. wide at the base. Panicle terminal, 6–18 in. long. Flowers ⅛ in. diam. Capsules 110 in. | 1. D. latifolium. |
| Similar to the preceding but much stouter. Leaves 10–24 in., 1–2 in. wide. Panicles denser. Capsules larger, ⅛ in. diam. | 2. D. Traversii. |
| Shrub 10–20 ft. high. Leaves 6–12 in., ⅓–½ in. wide at the base. Panicles small, lateral below the leaves, drooping, 2–3 in. long. Flowers ⅙ in. long | 3. D. Townsoni. |
| Small much branched shrub, stem often decumbent below. Leaves 3–8 in. long. Panicles lateral, drooping, 3–6 in. long. Flowers large, ⅓ in. long | 4. D. Menziesii. |
| Small much-branched shrub. Leaves 1½–4 in. long. Panicles terminal, 1½–4 in. long. Flowers ⅕–¾ in. | 5. D. strictum. |
| B. Flowers in spike like racemes or solitary. Calyx almost equalling the corolla-tube or longer than it, always completely enclosing the ripe capsule. | |
| * Flowers in spike-like racemes. | |
| Shrub 4–15 ft. Leaves patent and recurved, 1½–5 in long. Racemes lateral, 4–8-flowered | 6. D. Sinclairii. |
| Shrub 1–3 ft. Leaves patent and recurved, ½–1½ in. long, obtuse. Flowers in terminal bracteate spikes | 7. D. recurvum. |
| Leaves erect, 3–10 in. long, sheathing base ½–⅔ in. broad. Racemes 6–15-flowered | 8. D. longifolium. |
| Leaves erect, 1–5 in. long, sheathing base ⅛–¼ in. wide, truncate or auricled at the tip. Racemes 4–12-flowered | 9. D. Urvilleantum. |
| Leaves in many series, erect and appressed, very stout, polished, glabrous, ¾–1 in. long. Racemes 3–6-flowered | 10. D. Pearsoni. |
