oblong or lanceolate, acute, tomentose. Petals ligulate, sharply recurved. Ovary silky. Capsules larger than in P. tenuifolium, ⅔ in. diam., globose or broadly obovoid. 3-valved, rarely 2-valved, downy or nearly glabrous.—Students' Fl. 48.
Var. viridifolium, Kirk, l.c.—Branchlets more numerous, slender. Leaves thinner, oblong-obovate, acute, tapering into the petiole, perfectly glabrous. Flowers axillary, solitary. Approaches P. Colensoi, and has equal claims to be considered a large-leaved form of that species.
North Island: Auckland—Great and Little Barrier Islands, Kirk! Cape Colville Peninsula, from Cabbage Bay to Ohinemuri, Kirk! T. F. C. Var. viridifolium: Rotorua, Kirk! Taranaki—Urenui, T. F. C.; near Mount Egmont, Tryon! South Island: Milford Sound, Kirk! October–November.
Varies much in the number and position of the flowers, which may be either solitary and axillary, or collected into few-flowered cymes, which are then mostly terminal, constituting Mr. Kirk's var. fasciatum. The typical form appears to be restricted to the Auckland District. I leave the var. viridifolium as Mr. Kirk placed it, but probably it would be more appropriately included in P. Colensoi.
6. P. obcordatum, Raoul, Choix des Plantes, 24, t. 24.—A shrub or small tree 8–15 ft. high; bark pale; branches numerous, spreading, often tortuous, the younger ones silky towards the tips. Leaves alternate or in alternate fascicles of 2–4, ⅓–½ in. long, broadly obovate or obcordate, gradually narrowed into a short slender petiole, coriaceous, entire, glabrous or the margins under-surface and petioles more or less silky-pubescent, veins conspicuous beneath. Flowers small, 16 in. long, axillary, solitary or 2–3 together, pale-purple or almost white; peduncles short, slender, silky. Sepals very short, ovate-lanceolate, silky with white hairs. Petals linear, with spreading tips. Ovary silky. Capsule ovoid, acuminate, glabrous when old, about ¼ in. long, 2-valved.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 22; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 20; Kirk, Students' Fl. 48.
North Island: Auckland—Outlet of Lake Tongonge, near Kaitaia, R. H. Matthews! South Island: Canterbury—Shady woods near Akaroa, Raoul. September–October.
Mr. Matthews's specimens, from which the above description is drawn up, appear to differ from the type in the young leaves and branchlets being silky-pubescent. In all other respects they match Raoul's plate very closely.
7. P. rigidum, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 22, t. 10.—A rigid much and closely branched shrub 4–12 ft. high; branches stout and woody, spreading, usually tortuous and interlaced, rarely slender and erect; young shoots usually pubescent. Leaves small, alternate or fascicled on short lateral branchlets, ¼–¾ in. long, linear-obovate to oblong or elliptical, very thick and coriaceous or almost membranous, entire or sinuate-toothed or even deeply and irregularly lobed, glabrous or nearly so; margins recurved; petioles short, stout. Flowers small, solitary, either obviously terminal on the branches or seated at the tip of short arrested branchlets and thus appearing axillary, sessile or on very short peduncles. Sepals
