The plant herein described is the original V. ligustrifolia of A. Cunningham, and of Bentham in De Candolle's Prodromus. It by no means corresponds with the ligustrifolia of Hooker, who included in the term Bentham's V. acutiflora and my leiophylla, and possibly other plants. As a species it comes nearest to V. salicifolia, differing in the smaller size, paler bark, and more twiggy habit, in the much smaller and more obtuse leaves, in the lax-flowered racemes, in the acute and almost glabrous calyx-segments, and in the short broad tube of the corolla and its acute spreading lobes. I am indebted to Mr. N. E. Brown for comparing my North Cape specimens with Cunningham's type.
7. V. pubescens, Banks and Sol. ex Benth. in D.C. Prodr. x. 460.—A slender diffusely branched shrub 4–6 ft. high; branches terete, the younger ones villous with soft spreading white hairs. Leaves spreading or suberect, shortly petiolate, 1½–3 in. long, ⅓–⅔ in. broad, oblong-lanceolate or lanceolate, acute, narrowed towards the base, quite entire, midrib and margins and the whole of the under-surface villous with short soft white hairs. Racemes axillary, 2–4 in. long, ½ in. diam., rather slender, many-flowered; rhachis, pedicels, and calyx densely villous. Flowers small, ⅛–⅙ in. diam. Calyx 4-partite; segments oblong-lanceolate, acute. Corolla-tube slender, longer than the calyx; limb with 4 rather narrow oblong lobes. Capsule ovate, acute, glabrous, nearly twice as long as the calyx.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 193; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 208; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 351.
North Island: Auckland—Mercury Bay, Banks and Solander; Shoe Island (off Tairua Harbour) and Cabbage Bay, Adams!
Very near to V. salicifolia var. stricta, but at once separated by the copious hairs on the young shoots, margins and midribs of the leaves, and inflorescence. Mr. N. E. Brown informs me that Mr. Adams's specimens correspond precisely with Banks and Solander's type. Both Bentham and Hooker describe the plant as being "everywhere covered with red-brown hairs," but on the upper surface of the leaves the hairs are confined to the midrib and margins.
8. V. salicifolia, Forst. Prodr. n. 11.—An erect much-branched glabrous shrub 3–10 ft. high, more rarely taller and reaching 12–15 ft., with a trunk 9 in. diam.; branchlets slender, terete, glabrous or the younger ones minutely puberulous. Leaves sessile or nearly so, spreading, 2–6 in. long, ⅓–¾ in. broad, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, usually narrowed at the base, entire or with a few obscure incisions, rather thin, pale-green, glabrous or slightly downy on the midrib and margins, margins flat, midrib usually prominent beneath, especially towards the base of the leaf. Racemes slender, longer than the leaves, 3–10 in. long, very many-flowered; rhachis, pedicels, and bracts pubescent or almost glabrate; pedicels slender, variable in length. Flowers ⅛–⅕ in. diam., white with a pale-lilac tinge to pale bluish-purple, rarely quite white. Calyx 4-partite; segments lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, acute or subacute,
