clavate. Capsule 1½–3 in. long, glabrate or hoary-pubescent or tomentose; peduncles longer or shorter than the leaves. Seeds minutely papillose.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 551; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 60; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 80; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 304; Haussk. Monog. Epilob. 289; Kirk, Students' Fl. 169.
An exceedingly variable plant, the numerous forms of which may be grouped in the three following varieties:—
Var. cinereum, Haussk. l.c. 290.—Stems slender, often much branched, usually more or less covered with fine appressed greyish-white pubescence, rarely glabrate. Leaves small, often crowded, ⅓–1 in. long, linear-lanceolate, entire or sparingly denticulate, acute or mucronate, finely ashy-pubescent or glabrate. Flowers small. Capsules 1½–2 in. long, slender, hoary-pubescent.—E. cinereum, A. Rich. Fl Nouv. Zel. 330; A. Cunn. Precur. n 544. E. incanum, virgatum, and confertum, A. Cunn. l.c. nn. 545, 547, 549.
Var. hirtigerum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 60.—Stems tall, strict, erect, simple or sparingly branched, usually villous with soft spreading hairs mixed with shorter ones. Leaves 1–2½ in. long, lanceolate, acute or obtuse, coarsely and irregularly denticulate, both surfaces clothed with soft spreading hairs. Capsules 2–3 in long, hoary-pubescent or villous.— E. hirtigerum, A. Cunn. l.c. n. 546; Haussk. l.c. 291.
Var. macrophyllum, Haussk. l.c. 290.—Stems tall, often 3 ft. high, strict, erect, simple or sparingly branched, glabrous and often re dish below, finely and sparsely pubescent above. Leaves large, 1–3 in. long, lanceolate, acute or acuminate, rather thin and membranous, sinuate-denticulate, glabrous or the upper ones thinly puberulous. Capsules 2–3 in. long, hoary-pubescent.—E. erectum. Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxiv. (1902) 390.
North and South Islands: Abundant from the North Cape to Foveaux Strait, ascending to 3500 ft. October–February. A common Australian plant.
The extreme states of the above varieties have a very distinct appearance, and might have been treated as species were they not connected by numerous intermediate forms, which make it quite impossible to draw strict lines of demarcation between them.
5. E. pubens, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 329, t. 36.—Stems ½–2 ft. high, slender, simple or branched, decumbent and woody at the base, erect above, terete, uniformly clothed with a short fine pubescence. Leaves all alternate or the very lowest alone ooposite, ½–1½ in. long, ovate or ovate-oblong, obtuse or rarely subacute, narrowed into slender petioles, pubescent on both surfaces, membranous, toothed or repand-denticulate. Flowers in the axils of the upper leaves, numerous, small, 15–14 in. diam., white or pink. Calyx-lobes lanceolate, acute, puberulous. Stigma clavate. Capsules 1–2 in. long, hoary-pubescent; peduncles shorter than the leaves. Seeds minutely papillose.—A. Cunn. Precur. n. 513; Raoul, Choix, 49; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 61; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 80; Haussk. Monog. Epilob. 295; Kirk, Students Fl. 170.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island, Chatham Islands: Abundant from the North Cape southwards. Sea-level to nearly 4000 ft. October–January. Also in Australia, according to Professor Haussknecht.
6. E. confertifolium, Hook. f. Ic. Plant, t. 685.—Primary stems 2–6 in. long, creeping and rooting at the nodes, often forming
