calyx-segments broadly ovate, concave, obtuse or subacute, glabrous or sparingly pilose, keel thick, fleshy, margins scarious. Corolla-tube equalling the calyx, lobes ovate, acute, spreading or deflexed. Capsule small, ovoid, exceeding the calyx, 2-celled. Seeds usually 4 in each cell.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 227; Benth. Fl. Austral. v. 141. P. carnosa, R. Br. Prodr. 425 (not of Lam.); Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 65, t. 43; Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 207. P. picta, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 481.
North Island: Mount Hikurangi, Petrie! Ruahine Range, Colenso, Petrie! Mount Egmont, Buchanan! T.F.C.; Tararua Range, Buchanan! South Island, Stewart Island, Auckland Islands: Not uncommon in mountain districts. Sea-level to 5500 ft. Also in Victoria and Tasmania.
The Auckland Island plant is almost glabrous, and has much more fleshy and more deeply toothed leaves, and the spikes are usually larger. It may be distinct from the North and South Island mountain-plant, but both forms require a careful study in the field. Mr. Colenso's P. picta, founded on a single specimen collected by Mr. H. Hill on a small island near to Gable-end Foreland (East Cape district), appears to be referable to P. Brownii, but the specimen is very imperfect.
5. P. lanigera, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 227.—A small depressed species. Rootstock short, stout. Leaves numerous, all radical, spreading, forming flat rosettes 1–2 in. across, ⅓–1 in. long, oblong-spathulate, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into a broad flat petiole, entire or obscurely sinuate-dentate, rather thick and fleshy, upper surface densely woolly with dirty white tortuous jointed hairs, under-surface woolly or almost glabrous. Scapes numerous, erect or inclined, at first much shorter than the leaves, but elongating as the fruit ripens, stout, densely tomentose. Spike short, 1–5-flowered; flowers small, crowded. Bracts and calyx-segments broadly ovate, subacute, glabrous, keel dark, thick and fleshy. Corolla-tube equalling the calyx; lobes ovate-lanceolate, acute. Capsule exceeding the calyx, broadly oblong, obtuse, 2-celled. Seeds 6 or 7 in each cell.
Var. Petriei.—Larger; leaves often 2 in. long, thinner, upper surface sparingly pilose with jointed hairs, glabrous or nearly so beneath, margins ciliate. Scapes longer, usually exceeding the leaves. Perhaps a distinct species.
South Island: Nelson—Mountains above the Clarence Valley, T.F.C. Canterbury—Armstrong. Otago—Lake district, Hector and Buchanan! Old Man Range, Hector Mountains, Mount Pisa, Mount Cardrona, Petrie! 4000–6000 ft. Var. Petriei: Mount Kyeburn, alt. 3500 ft., Petrie!
The ordinary state of the species is easily recognised by the copious matted jointed hairs on the leaves, short densely tomentose scapes, and oblong obtuse many-seeded capsule.
6. P. triandra, Berggr. in Minneskr. Fisiog. Sallsk. Lund. (1877) 16, t. 4, f. 12–33.—Rootstock short, stout, crown densely clothed with long red-brown silky wool, rarely almost glabrous. Leaves nu-
