A well-marked species. The var. macrocalyx principally differs in its more branched and trailing habit, longer and narrower leaves, which are not so coriaceous when dry, longer and narrower bracts and calyx-segments, and shorter narrower corolla. Mr. N. E. Brown is inclined to treat it as a distinct species, but it appears to me to be connected with the type by intermediate forms.
59. V. epacridea, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 213.—A small much-branched prostrate or decumbent rigid shrub; stems woody, tortuous, 3–12 in. long; branches curved, ascending at the tips, densely leafy, obscurely tetragonous, ¼–½ in. diam. with the leaves on, glabrous or pubescent above. Leaves closely quadrifariously imbricated, opposite pairs connate at the base, spreading and recurved, ⅛–¼ in. long, broadly oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse or subacute, concave in front, keeled at the back, rigid, very coriaceous; margins usually red, thickened, ciliate towards the base. Flowers small, white, densely packed in terminal ovoid heads ½–1 in. long, formed of numerous reduced spikes in the axils of leafy bracts. Bracts obovate or ovate to linear-obovate, ciliate. Calyx deeply 4-partite, segments unequal, linear-oblong, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla-tube long, narrow, equalling the calyx; limb small, ⅛ in. diam., 4-lobed; lobes ovate, acute, spreading or recurved. Capsule small, ovoid-oblong, exceeding the calyx.—Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 350; Cockayne in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 380 (development of seedling).
South Island: Nelson—Gordon's Nob, Mount Arthur and Mount Peel, mountains above the Wairau Gorge, T. F. C.; Tarndale, Sinclair; mountains flanking the Clarence and Waiau Valleys, Travers, Kirk! T. F. C. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse and Broken River Basin, Enys! Kirk! Cockayne! T. F. C.; Ashburton Valley, Godley Glacier, Mount Darwin, Haast; Mount Dobson, T. F. C. Otago— Mount Arnould, Petrie! 3000–6500 ft. December–February.
Very close to V. Haastii, and there are forms which are quite intermediate, but in the usual state it is easily separated by the smaller size, sharply recurved leaves, and ciliate bracts and calyx-segments.
60. V. Petriei, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxviii. (1896) 517.—A decumbent or prostrate sparingly branched woody little plant; branches ascending, 3–6 in. long. Leaves not close-set, spreading, ¼–½ in. long, oblong or linear-oblong, rounded at the apex, narrowed into a short broad petiole, flat, slightly coriaceous, glabrous or the margins minutely glandular-ciliate; the opposite petioles connate at the base and forming a, short sheath clasping the branch. Flowering branches clothed with numerous erect linear or linear-lanceolate foliaceous obtuse bracts, each branch ending in a narrow-oblong many-flowered spiciform head ½–1½ in. long. Flowers small, ⅛–⅙ in. diam., solitary and sessile in the axils of the bracts, which slightly exceed the calyx. Calyx deeply 4–5-partite; segments very unequal in size, linear, obtuse, minutely ciliate. Corolla hardly exceeding the calyx; tube
