North Island: Hawke's Bay—Kaweka Mountain, H. Tryon. South Island: Abundant throughout. Sea-level to 4000 ft. December–February.
Closely allied to M. Forsteri, but easily distinguished by the more erect habit, more hispid stems and leaves and calyces, shorter and more erect pedicels, usually yellow flowers, and narrower black nutlets. It is a common Australian plant.
7. M. Forsteri, Lehm. Asperif. 95.—Usually perennial. Stems branched from t>he root, decumbent or almost prostrate below, ascending or suberect above, slender, flaccid, leafy, 6–18 in. long, more or less hispid or pilose with soft white hairs. Lower leaves on long slender petioles ½–2 in. long; blade ½–1½ in., oblong or orbicular-oblong, obtuse or apiculate, rather membranous, both surfaces hispidulous. Racemes elongated, very many-flowered; the lower flowers often axillary; fruiting pedicels equalling the calyx or longer than it, spreading. Flowers about ¼ in. long, white or white with a yellow eye. Calyx campanulate, hispid with spreading hooked hairs, 5-lobed to the middle; lobes linear-oblong, acute. Corolla-tube funnel-shaped, slightly exceeding the calyx, throat with 5 scales; lobes short, rounded. Anthers included, their tips equalling the corolla-scales. Nutlets broadly ovoid or almost orbicular, pale-brown, sinning.—D.C. Prodr. x. 110; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 393; Raoul, Choix, 43; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 200; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 194. M. spathulata, A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 198 (non Forst.). M. Hamiltoni, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xx. (1888) 201. M. polyantha and M. tenuifolia, Col. l.c. xxxi. (1899) 275, 276. (?) M. venosa, Col. l.c. xxviii. (1896) 606.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon from the Bay of Islands to the south-west of Otago. Sea-level to 3500 ft. October–February.
8. M. capitata, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 56, t. 37.—Perennial; clothed in all its parts with soft spreading scarcely hispid hairs; rootstock long; stems one or several from the root, stout, ascending, simple, leafy. Eadical leaves numerous, spreading, 1½–4 in. long, linear-obovate or linear-oblong or spathulate, obtuse, narrowed into a short broad petiole, clothed with soft spreading or appressed hairs above, much less hairy beneath; cauline smaller, the upper ones sessile. Racemes short, stout, simple or branched, usually forming a dense many-flowered head. Flowers ¼ in. long, ⅕–¼ in. diam., shortly pediceiled, blue. Calyx hispid with appressed straight hairs, 5-lobed ¾-way down; lobes linear, obtuse. Corolla-tube ⅓ longer than the calyx, cylindrical, throat with 5 scales; limb flat, spreading, with 5 rounded lobes. Stamens included; filaments very short; anther-tips just above the level of the scales. Style long, slender. Nutlets ovoid, smooth and shining, black.—Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 200; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 194.
