hispid; petioles villous at the base with long brown silky hairs. Scapes longer than the leaves, few or many, slender, strict, pilose, terminating in a rather dense spike ⅓–1 in. long. Bracts orbicular, obtuse, glabrous, broadly margined. Calyx-segments broadly ovate, with a thick fleshy keel and broad membranous margins, glabrous. Corolla-tube about as long as the calyx, lobes very small. Capsule twice as long as the calyx, conic, acute; seeds usually 4.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 208; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 228. P. varia, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 370. (not of B. Br.); Raoul, Choix, 44. P. dasyphylla, Col. in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 393.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Common throughout, on moist banks, &c. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Flowers throughout the spring and summer.
Very closely allied to the Australian P. varia, which has become sparingly naturalised in the colony, but the spike is shorter and more glabrous, and the flowers are smaller.
3. P. spathulata, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 208.—Rootstock short, stout. Leaves numerous, all radical, spreading, rosulate, very variable in size and shape, 1–5 in. long, obovate-spathulate to oblong-spathulate or lanceolate-spathulate, obtuse or subacute, narrowed into rather long broad petioles, rather thick and fleshy, entire or more usually irregularly sinuate-toothed, sometimes almost pinnatifid, sparingly pilose or almost glabrate; petioles villous at the base. Scapes usually numerous, longer than the leaves, slender, villous or pilose; spike oblong, obtuse, densely many-flowered, ¼–1 in. long. Bracts and calyx-segments broadly ovate, acute, with a thick fleshy centre, pilose and ciliate. Corollalobes ovate, acute. Capsule not much longer than the calyx, broadly oblong, apiculate. Seeds 3 or 4.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 227.
North Island: East Cape district, Bishop Williams, Adams and Petrie! Hawke's Bay and coast between Castlepoint and Cape Palliser, Colenso! South Island: Not uncommon throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft.
Easily distinguished from P. Raoulii by the shorter and broader more rosulate leaves, shorter scapes, pilose and ciliate bracts and calyx-segments, and shorter and broader capsule.
4. P. Brownii, Rapin in Mem. Soc. Linn. Par. vi. (1827) 485.—Small, tufted, rather fleshy. Rhizome short, stout, woolly amongst the leaves or quite glabrous. Leaves very numerous, all radical, spreading, rosulate, ½–2 in. long, oblong-lanceolate or spathulate, acute or obtuse, narrowed into a broad petiole, more or less sinuate-toothed or entire, rather thick and fleshy, glabrous or pilose with scattered jointed hairs. Scapes many, variable in length, equalling the leaves or much longer than them, pilose or glabrous. Flowers small, usually from 2 to 5, but in depauperated specimens the spike is often reduced to a single flower, and in large specimens the flowers may be as many as 6–8. Bracts and
