ovate sheathing bases and erect subulate tips. Sepals usually exceeding the corolla-tube.—Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 171; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 182.
North Island: From Rotorua and the Upper Thames Valley to Taupe, Ruapehu, and the Ruahine Mountains. 350 to 3500 ft. Monoao. November–March.
Easily recognised by its small size and erect slender habit, short very narrow leaves, and small flowers.
13. D. pubescens, Cheesem. n. sp.—A small densely branched woody shrub; branches stout, often decumbent below, erect or ascending above; bark dark reddish-brown or almost black. Leaves crowded, spreading or erecto-patent. 1–2½ in. long, ⅙–⅓ in. broad at the sheathing base, which is not much broader than the blade, gradually narrowed to an acuminate and pungent point, coriaceous, concave in front, rounded on the back, glaucous, striate, minutely and evenly pubescent on both surfaces, sometimes becommg almost glabrous when old. Flowers about ¼ in. long, in 3–5-flowered spikes terminating short lateral branchlets. Bracts ovate, acuminate; margins ciliate. Sepals ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, equalling the corolla-tube. Corolla-lobes triangular, acute. Capsule obovoid, included within the persistent calyx-lobes.
South Island: Nelson—Mountains near Westport, Townson! 1500–2500 ft.
Habit of D. Kirkii, Berggren, but a larger and stouter and more copiously branched plant, with the leaves finely and equally pubescent on both surfaces, and with the flowers in 3–5-flovered spikes, not solitary. The leaves are very similar in shape to those of small specimens of D. strictum, and are quite different to those of D. Urvilleanum, D. scoparuim, and their allies.
14. D. Kirkii, Berggren in Journ. Bot. xviii. (1880) 104.—A small depressed woody shrub; branches very stout, 6–18 in. long, prostrate or decumbent, suberect at the tips; bark reddish-brown. Leaves crowded, spreading or suberect, ¾–2 in. long, ⅙ in. wide at the sheathing base, which is not conspicuously broader than the blade, gradually narrowed into an acuminate pungent point, coriaceous, more or less concave, glaucous, quite glabrous, striate; margins very minutely serrulate. Flowers solitary, lateral, ¼–⅓ in. long, shortly pedicelled. Bracts 2–3, sheathing, the tips often exceeding the flower. Sepals ovate, acuminate, shorter than the corolla-tube, margins minutely ciliate. Corolla-lobes ovate-triangular, acute. Anthers included. Capsule broadly obovoid, ⅛ in. diam., enclosed in the persistent calyx-lobes.—D. unifiorum, Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 15, t. 4, f. 1–11 (not of Hook. f.).
South Island: Nelson—Lake Tennyson, T. F. C. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse, Berggren; Arthur's Pass, Kirk! Cockayne! T. F. C.; Waimakariri Glacier, T. F. C.; Ashburton Mountains, Potts! Mount Cook district, T. F. C. Westland—Kelly's Hill, Petrie! 2500–4500 ft. December–February.
