obovate or almost orbicular, obtuse, very coriaceous, concave, not keeled, quite glabrous, nerveless or the midrib very obscure, glaucous; margins smooth and even. Spikes crowded near the ends of the branches, often forming a dense terminal head, short, stout, very dense-flowered; peduncle, rhachis, and bracts pubescent or almost villous; bracts equalling the calyx, ciliolate. Flowers about 1 in. diam., sessile, white. Calyx 4-partite; segments erect, ovate-oblong, obtuse, slightly ciliate. Corolla-tube equalling the calyx or rather shorter than it; limb 4-lobed. Ovary and style glabrous. Capsule ⅙–⅕ in. long, ovate, acute, glabrous, compressed^ about twice as long as the calyx.—Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 350. V. lævis var. carnosula, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 194.
South Island: Mountain districts from Nelson to Otago, but apparently not so abundant as V. pinguifolia. 2500–4500 ft. December–March.
Very closely allied to V. pinguifolia, differing mainly in the rather larger ovate-acute glabrous capsule. The capsule of V. pinguifolia is obovate-oblong, rounded or emarginate at the tip, and more or less pubescent.
42. V. amplexicaulis, Armstr. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xiii. (1881) 352.—An erect or decumbent shrub 1–3 ft. high; branches stout, spreading, ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves; branchlets terete, glabrous or puberulous. Leaves decussate, imbricate, suberect or spreading, sessile, ½–1 in. long, ⅓–⅔ in. broad, broadly oblong or elliptic-oblong, rounded at the tip, subcordate and almost amplexicaul at the base, very coriaceous, glaucous, concave, nerveless, not keeled; margins smooth and even. Spikes 2–4 near the tips of the branches, 1–1½ in. long, stout, oblong, very dense-flowered, simple or trifurcate; peduncles stout, exceeding the leaves, and with the rhachis pubescent with soft spreading hairs; bracts large, equalling the calyx, broadly oblong, concave, obtuse, margins ciliate. Flowers white, ¼ in. diam., sessile. Calyx 4-partite; segments erect, oblong, obtuse, ciliate. Corolla-tube about the length of the calyx; limb 4-lobed; dorsal lobe the broadest, erect; the other three narrow-oblong, obtuse, spreading or decurved. Ovary pubescent. Capsule oblong, rounded at the tip, pubescent, about half as long again as the calyx.—Hook. f. Bot. Mag. t. 7370.
South Island: Canterbury—Upper Rangitata, Armstrong!
Closely related to V. pinguifolia, from which it differs in the larger leaves, which are cordate and semiamplexicaul at the base, and in the larger and often branched spikes. Mr. Armstrong describes the corolla-tube as "long," but it barely equals the calyx in all the specimens I have seen, including an authentic one from him.
43. V. pinguifolia, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 210.—An erect or decumbent much-branched glaucous shrub 6 in. to 4 ft. high; branches stout, spreading, ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves, the younger ones bifariously pubescent. Leaves closely
