Var. erecta.—Stems stout, erect or suberect. Heads usually many-flowered.
Var. repens.—Stems more slender, procumbent or prostrate, often very diffusely branched. Flowers fewer and smaller.
Var. alpina.—Stems stout, suberect or spreading, branches tortuous, scarred, often nearly glabrous.
North and South Islands: From the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape southwards to the Bluff, abundant. Sea-level to 4500 ft. October–March.
An almost polymorphous plant, the various forms of which are much in need of careful study and comparison.
9. P. Urvilleana, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 175.—A small widely-spreading rather laxly branched procumbent shrub; branches 4–18 in. long, scarred, the younger ones white with copious short appressed silky hairs. Leaves close-set, usually quadrifariously imbricating, spreading or deflexed, ⅙–¼ in. long, linear-oblong to oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse or subacute, thick and coriaceous, concave, nerveless, usually glabrous on both surfaces; floral leaves usually larger and broader. Flowers in 4–8-flowered heads at the tips of the branches, small, white. Perianth ⅙–⅕ in. long, villous with long white hairs; lobes equalling the tube, broadly oblong, obtuse. Fruit baccate, white.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 348; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 221; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 244. P. prostrata var. Urvilleana, Meisn. in D.C. Prodr. xiv. 517. Gymnococca microcarpa, Fisch. and Mey. Ind. Sem. Hort. Petrop. x. (1845) 47.
North Island: Usually near the sea. Bay of Islands, Cunningham; Whangarei Heads, Great Barrier Island, Kirk! Little Barrier Island, T.F.C.; vicinity of Auckland, Colonel Haultain! Taranaki, Dieffenbach. South Island: Nelson—Tasman Bay, D'Urville. October–March.
A very imperfectly understood species, apparently only differing from states of P. lævigata in the copious snow-white hairs on the young branches.
10. P. Suteri, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvi. (1894) 259.—A small much-branched shrub 4–12 in. high; branches spreading or suberect, often tortuous; the younger ones sparingly pilose with rather long straight silky hairs; bark dark red-brown or black. Leaves crowded, shortly petiolate or nearly sessile, erecto-patent, about ⅓ in. long, narrow linear-lanceolate, subacute, coriaceous, concave above, both surfaces glabrous or rarely with a few lax hairs, margins and apices ciliated with long straight hairs. Flowers in 4–8-flowered heads at the tips of the branches, white, polygamodioecious. Perianth ¼–⅓ in. long, villous with white hairs. Fruit baccate, red, ovoid, acute, hairy at the tip.
South Island: Nelson—Dun Mountain Range. W. T. L. Travers! P. Lawson! R. J. Kingsley! 2000–3500 ft.
A peculiar little plant, closely related to P. Lyallii and P. lævigata, but differing from both in the narrower leaves, with ciliate margins and apices.
