North Island: Cape Maria van Diemen, Colenso! Te Paua, Parengarenga, T. F. C.; near Ahipara, H. Carse! R. H. Matthews! South Island: Bluff Hill, Kirk. December–January. Also in Australia and Tasmania.
A beautiful little plant, probably not uncommon in moist peaty situations, but very easily overlooked.
4. D. spathulata, Labill. Nov. Holl. Pl. i. 79, t. 106, f. 1.—Stemless. Leaves numerous, crowded, rosulate, ⅓–¾ in. long; blade 18–13 in., spathulate or obovate or orbicular-obovate, narrowed into a broad and flat petiole of varying length, upper surface and margins covered with glandular hairs; stipules scarious, narrow, laciniate. Scapes 1 or several, 1–6 in. high, usually bearing a second raceme of 3–7 flowers, but often 2–3-flowered or even 1-flowered. Flowers small, 15 in. diam., white or rose. Calyx deeply divided; lobes 5, linear-oblong. Petals 5. rather longer than the calyx. Styles 3, 2-partite almost to the base, branches entire or again forked.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 20; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 63; Benth. Fl. Austral. ii. 459; Kirk, Students' Fl. 146. D. propinqua, R. Cunn. Precur. n. 620. D. minutula. Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxi. (1889) 81. D. triflora. Col. l.c. xxii. (1890) 461.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From Mongonui southwards, but often local. Sea-level to 4500 ft. November–January. Also in Australia and Tasmania.
Mountain specimens are often much reduced in size, with shorter and broader leaves, 1–2-flowered scapes, and broader calyx-lobes; but they pass by insensible gradations into the ordinary form.
5. D. binata, Labill. Nov. Holl. Pl. i. 78, t. 105, f. 1.—Stemless. Rootstock short, emitting numerous fleshy roots. Leaves all radical, erect; petioles 2–5 in. long, slender, glabrous; blade 2–4 in., divided to the base into 2 narrow-linear segments 115–110 broad, which are simple or again forked, upper surface and margins clothed with long glandular hairs. Scapes exceeding the leaves, 6–18 in. high, slender, glabrous, bearing a loose cyme of few or many rather large white flowers ⅓–½ in. diam. Calyx deeply 4–5-lobed; lobes oblong, entire or lacerate at the tips. Petals 4–5, obovate, twice as long as the calyx. Styles usually 3, penicillate.—Bot. Mag. t. 3082; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 20; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 64; Benth. Fl. Austral. ii. 461; Kirk, Students Fl. 146. D. intermedia, R. Cunn. Precur. n. 621. D. flagellifera, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiii. (1891) 384.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: From the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to 2500 ft. November–February. A common Australian and Tasmanian plant.
A very handsome and conspicuous species. Mr. Colenso's D. flagellifera, as shown by the specimens in his herbarium, is merely a small state with narrower and often simple leaf-segments, and can be matched in any locality where the plant is plentiful.
6. D. auriculata, Backh. ex Planch. in Ann. Sci. Nat. Ser. 3, ix. (1848) 295.—Rootstock slender, terminating in a globose tuber deep
