thick and coriaceous, glabrous, dark-green. Racemes many-flowered, on strict erect densely pubescent lateral peduncles 3–5 in. long; pedicels ¼–½ in. long, slender. Flowers ¼–⅓ in. diam., white with pink veins. Calyx deeply l-partite; segments broadly ovate, obtuse, margins ciliolate. Corolla-tube very short, limb with 4 rounded spreading lobes. Stamens shorter than the corolla-lobes. Capsule broadly oblong, turgid, emarginate, one-third as long again as the calyx.
North Island: Ruahine Range, Colenso! Olsen! Petrie! 2000–4000 ft. December–March.
I retain this as a species for the present, although far from satisfied as to its distinctness from V. Hookeriana, from which it differs mainly in the more slender mode of growth, glabrous leaves, more slender and less pubescent manyflowered racemes, and in the narrower capsule. It is apparently intermediate between V. Hookeriana and V. Lyallii.
79. V. spathulata, Benth. in D.C. Prodr. x. 477.—A small prostrate excessively branched pubescent little plant, forming dense patches 3–9 in. across; branches short, stout, ascending, leafy, clothed with crisped white hairs. Leaves crowded, spreading, petiolate, ⅙–½ in. long including the petiole, ovate-spathulate or deltoid-spathulate, obtuse, coarsely crenate or crenate-lobed, thick and coriaceous, black when dry, more or less hairy on both surfaces; petiole about as long as the blade, broad, channelled. Peduncles near the tips of the branches, short, stout, pubescent, equalling the leaves or nearly twice as long as them, 2–5-flowered; bracts foliaceous, and with the pedicels and calyces densely pubescent. Flowers ¼ in. diam., white. Calyx 4-partite; segments oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse. Corolla-tube short; limb broad, 4-lobed, lobes rounded. Stamens 2, shorter than the corolla-lobes. Capsule equalling or slightly exceeding the calyx, broadly obcordate, pubescent.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 197; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 216; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 349. V. vulcanica, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 203. V. subrosulata, Col. l.c. xxxi. (1899) 278.
North Island: Tongariro, Bidwill; Ruapehu, Tryon! Hill! Petrie! Rev. F. H. Spencer! Ruahine Mountains, Hill! 3000–6000 ft.
Nearest to V. Hookeriana, but more depressed and much more branched, leaves spathulate on longer petioles, peduncles much shorter, and capsule broader and obcordate.
80. V. plebeia, R. Br. Prodr. 435.—Stems slender, leafy, prostrate and rooting, much and diffusely branched, elongated, 1–3 ft. long, usually minutely pubescent. Leaves on rather long petioles; blade ½–1 in. long, broadly ovate or deltoid, obtuse or subacute, cordate or truncate at the base, coarsely and irregularly acutely toothed, 3-nerved, glabrous or sparsely hairy. Racemes lateral, axillary, pedunculate, 2–5 in. long, slender, loosely 5–10-flowered;
