lobes linear-lanceolate, acute. Corolla funnel-shaped; tube short, hardly exceeding the calyx, throat naked or furnished with 5 scales, limb equalling the tube or slightly longer than it. Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube; filaments longer than the anthers, sometimes elongated; anthers altogether above the level of the scales and frequently reaching ¾-way up the corolla-lobes. Nutlets ovoid, pale-brown, smooth and shining, much compressed, margins thin.—D.C. Prodr. x. 112; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 201; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 193. Anchusa spathulata, R. Br. ex Rœm. and Schult. Syst. iv. 100; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 392; Raoul, Choix, 43.
North and Sooth Islands: Moist lowland stations from the Three Kings Islands southwards, not common. Chatham Islands: Cox and Cockayne! November–January .
A very variable plant. Small states sometimes have the throat of the corolla either without scales or with very obscure ones. This character was used by De Candolle to constitute his subgenus Gymnomyosotis, but there is a gradual transition from flowers without scales to others in which they are as well developed as in other species of the genus, and looking at the fact that the filaments are at least longer than the anthers it seems best to place the species in the subgenus Exarrhena, and in the neighbourhood of M. petiolata.
Some specimens collected by Petrie at Inch-Clutha (Otago) and by Kirk at Winton (Southland) have precisely the habit of M. spathulata, and the calyx and fruit are the same. But the flowers are rather smaller, the throat of the corolla is furnished with evident scales, and the filaments are shorter than the anthers, so that the latter are entirely included in the corolla-tube, their tips not reaching the level of the scales. This form will probably prove to be a distinct species.
15. M. petiolata, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 202.—Perennial; sparsely clothed with short white scabrid hairs; rootstock long, stout or slender; stems usually numerous, decumbent or prostrate at the base, then ascending, slender, sparingly leafy, 4–14 in. long. Radical and lower cauline leaves on long slender petioles ½–3 in. long; blade ⅔–2 in., broadly elliptic-oblong or elliptic-obovate, apiculate or rounded or retuse at the tip, thin and membranous, both surfaces slightly scabrid; upper cauline sessile, broadly obovate-spathulate. Racemes long, slender, many-flowered, simple or forked. Flowers ¼–⅓ in. diam., white or white with a yellow eye; pedicels rather long, slender, spreading. Calyx clothed with straight appressed hairs, 5-lobed almost to the base; lobes linear, acute. Corolla broad, campanulate; tube very short, with 5 scales at the throat; limb several times longer than the tube, deeply 5-lobed; lobes oblong, spreading. Stamens with long and slender filaments; anthers far exserted beyond the tube, almost reaching the top of the corolla-lobes. Nutlets broadly ovoid, polished and shining, dark red-brown or black.—Exarrhena petiolata, Hook. f. Handh. N.Z. Fl. 195.
