North Island: Tararua Range, Buchanan! South Island, Stewart Island: Common in mountain districts throughout. Var. politum: Maungatua, near Dunedin, Petrie! Mount Anglem and Smith's Lookout (Stewart Island), Kirk! 2500–5500 ft. December–March.
17. D. prostratum, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 384.—A small prostrate species; stems 3–12 in. long, sometimes slender and sparingly divided, sometimes robust and copiously branched, but the branches never so closely compacted as in D. muscoides. Leaves imbricating, erect, incurved when dry, ⅛–¼ in. long; sheathing base short, with broad thin margins, narrowed into a linear-subulate blade, which is obtuse or subacute at the tip, coriaceous, convex at the back, flat or slightly concave in front, curved, margins minutely serrulate. Flowers solitary, terminating the branches, ⅙ in. long, white. Sepals ovate, subacute, rather shorter than the corolla-tube. Corolla-lobes broadly ovate-triangular.
South Island: Otago—Mountains above Lake Harris; Longwood Range, Kirk! Maungatua, Clinton Valley, and Blue Mountains, Petrie! 1000–4000 ft.
Differs from D. muscoides in the larger size and much more lax habit, and in the longer leaves, which are not so closely imbricated; but some of Mr. Petrie's specimens are almost intermediate.
18. D. muscoides, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 183.—A small densely tufted rigid little plant, forming rounded masses a few inches in diameter; branches short, densely packed, clothed with minute closely imbricating leaves. Leaves 110–18 in. long, very thick and coriaceous, rigid, concave; sheathing base about half the length, broadly ovate, margins thin; tip short, subulate, polished, semiterete, obtuse or more rarely subacute. Flower solitary, terminal, ⅙ in. long, white. Sepals ovate, subacute, as long as the corolla. Corolla-tube short and broad, cylindrical; lobes very broad, obtuse or subacute.
South Island: Otago—Mount Alta and Hector's Col, Buchanan! Old Man Range, Hector Mountains, Mount Pisa, Mount St. Bathan's, Petrie! 4000–6000 ft.
In the Index Kewensis this is referred to the Tasmanian D. minimum; but, judging from a scrap of that species received from the late Baron Mueller, it differs in the more rigid habit and shorter and more closely imbricated leaves, which are also thicker and not nearly so acute.
Order XLIV. PRIMULACEÆ.
Perennial or more rarely annual herbs. Leaves all radical, or cauline, and if so, opposite or alternate or whorled; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, regular. Calyx usually inferior (half-superior in Samolus), 4–9-lobed or -partite. Corolla gamopetalous, with as many lobes as divisions of the calyx, lobes imbricate or contorted. Stamens equal in number to the corolla-lobes and
