Very variable in the shape and texture of the leaves and the extent to which they are covered with hairs. M. Hectori only differs in the rather broader and shorter leaves, and passes so insensibly into the type that it cannot be retained even as a variety.
3. M. Cheesemanii, Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst xviii. (1886) 296.—A small perennial herb forming tufts 1–3 in. diam., more or less clothed in all its parts with long soft white hairs. Stems several from the root, 1–1½ in. long, spreading or ascending, densely leafy. Lower leaves ¼–½ in. long, obovate-spathulate, usually rounded at the tip, narrowed into a broad membranous almost glabrous 3-nerved base, upper portion coriaceous, hispid on both surfaces, margins ciliate with long hairs; cauline leaves smaller and narrower, more acute. Flowers 1–4 towards the tips of the branches, solitary, axillary, ⅓ in. long, white, sweet-scented. Calyx clothed with long straight hairs, 5-lobed to the middle; lobes lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, erect, acute. Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, almost twice as long as the calyx, throat with 5 lunate glands; lobes spreading, short, broad, rounded. Stamens included; filaments very short; the tips of the anthers equalling or slightly overtopping the corolla-scales. Nutlets narrow-ovoid, dark-brown, polished, acute.
South Island: Otago—Mount Pisa and the Hector Mountains, on shingle slopes, Petrie! 4500–6000 ft.
A very pretty and distinct little species. In some respects it is allied to M. Traversii, but it is much smaller and more densely tufted, and the flowers are axillary, not racemose.
4. M. antarctica, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 57, t. 38.—Annual or perennial, more or less clothed in all its parts with spreading or appressed stiff white hairs. Stems numerous from the root, prostrate or decumbent, ascending at the tips, 1–6 in. long, usually densely leafy. Radical leaves ¼–1 in. long, narrow obovate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, obtuse or apiculate, sessile or narrowed into a petiole of variable length, membranous or rather coriaceous; cauline smaller, sessile, often distichous. Flowers solitary and axillary, sessile or nearly so, minute, 110–18 in. long, white or yellow or blue. Calyx cut nearly half-way down, hispid with long straight hairs; lobes linear-lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, acute. Corolla-tube cylindric, variable in length, in some forms barely exceeding the calyx, in others almost twice as long, throat with 5 scales; lobes very short, rounded. Stamens included; anther-tips usually reaching to the level of the corolla-scales. Fruiting calyx enlargeii, open. Nutlets ovoid, acute, compressed, shining, black or nearly so.—Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 201; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 193. M. pygmæa, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 334. M. Traillii, Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xvi. (1884) 373.
