puberulous or almost glabrate; pedicels wanting or the lower flowers alone shortly stalked; bracts oblong-ovate, obtuse, large, often exceeding the calyx. Flowers crowded on the branches of the raceme, about ¼ in. diam. Calyx 4-partite; segments oblong, obtuse, with pale membranous ciliolate margins. Corollatube about half as long again as the calyx; limb equalling the tube or nearly so; lobes oblong-ovate, obtuse or subacute. Capsule broadly oblong, obtuse or subacute, about ¼ in. long, not twice the length of the calyx.
South Island: Marlborough—Awatere Valley, Sinclair! Kaikoura Mountains, Buchanan! gorge of the Conway River, Cockayne!
A well-marked plant, easily recognised by the peculiar habit, spreading and long-petioled linear-obovate glaucous leaves, trichotomous racemes much longer than the leaves, almost sessile flowers, and large bracts. Its nearest ally is probably V. Colensoi.
26. V. lævis, Benth. in D.C. Prodr. x. 461.—A small perfectly glabrous densely branched shrub 1–5 ft. high; branches stout, erect, densely leafy above, below ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves; bark black. Leaves decussate, close-set, erect and appressed, rarely further apart and spreading, ⅓–⅔ in. long, ⅕–⅓ in. broad, ovate-oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse or acute or apiculate, abruptly narrowed into a short thick petiole, very thick and coriaceous, rigid, concave above, keeled at the back; midrib stout, prominent beneath, usually excurrent at the tip; margins entire. Racemes 2–4 near the ends of the branchlets, corymbosely branched, rarely simple, ¾–1½ in. long, dense-flowered; rhachis stout, pubescent; bracts small, oblong-ovate, coriaceous, usually exceeding the lower pedicels. Flowers white, ⅕–¼ in. diam. Calyx deeply 4-partite; segments oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse. Corolla-tube rather broad, less than twice as long as the calyx; segments oblong or oblong-ovate, obtuse. Capsule ovate or ovate-oblong, acute, about twice as long as the calyx.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 194; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 209; Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 351. (?)V. azurea, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxxi. (1899) 277.
North Island: Mount Hikurangi, Adams and Petrie! Mount Egmont, T.F.C. Tonagariro, Bidwill, Capt. G. Mair! Ruapehu, H. Tryon! H. Hill! Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! H. Hill! A. Hamilton! Tararua Mountains, Buchanan! South Island: Marlborough—Mount Duppa, Macmahon! 2500–5000 ft. December–February.
The typical state of this is distinguished by the close-set imbricating and more or less appressed leaves, which are keeled at the back, but not truncate or subcordate at the base as in V. buxifolia, and by the usually corymbosely branched racemes. This latter peculiarity, Mr. N. E. Brown assures me, is well shown by the type specimens at Kew. It has been recorded from many districts in the South Island, from Nelson to Otago, but I have not seen any specimens that satisfactorily match those from the North Island. Most are referable to
