lares et terminales, aggregati, subcapital, densiflori, ½ unc. longi. Pedunculi (seu rachides) brevissimi, angulati, bifariam puberuli, articulati, siccitate fragiles, infra flores bracteolati. Bracteæ parvæ, sub ½ lin. longæ, basi subconnatæ, latissime ovatæ, concavæ, subcymbiformes, crassæ et coriaceæ, marginibus membranaceis, ciliatis. Pedicelli brevissimi, v. subnulli. Calyx profunde 4-partitus, v. subtetraphyllus, laciniæ inter se subæquales, bracteis æquilongae, late ovato-oblongæ, obtusæ, tubum corollæ æquantes, medio et præipue versus apices incrassatæ, 3-nerves; marginibus tenuioribus, sub lente ciliatis. Corolla alba, subrotata v. hypocrateriformis, tubo (pro genere) elongato, diametro 3—4 lin.; tubus paulo longior quam latus, rectus; limbus tubo longior, 4-fidus; laciniæ subæquales, patentes, subrecurvæ, oblongo-obovatæ, obtusse, venosæ, superior paulo major, inferior angustior. Stamina 2; filamenta crassiuscula, subulata, laciniis corolla; paulo breviora, versus apices attenuata; antheræ purpureæ, majuscule, loculis paulo divaricatis, superne confluentibus; hinc anthera subunilocularis, rima hypocrepiformi dehiscentes. Pollen ellipticum, profunde 3-sulcatum, luteum, siccitate castaneum, opacum. Ovarium ovatum, acutum, compressum, bisulcatum, biloculare. Stylus gracilis, paulo curvatus, exsertus. Stigma minutum, vix capitatum. Fructus non visus.
This species is more remarkable for the delicious fragrance of its flowers than for any beauty of appearance. From the uniform size of the leaves and their regularly patent disposition on the slender simple branches, it affords a more striking example of folia decussata than any of the genus. It is in this respect allied to the V. elliptica, Forst., as also in having crowded, white, subcapitate flowers, and in their being sweet-scented. Most of these characters, and especially that of the corolla being white, seem more usual amongst the alpine species of this genus in New Zealand, than in those of the lower lands of this or of other countries.
There are three other species to which this is allied; V. diosæfolia, R. Cunn., V. buxifolia, Benth., and V. lævis, Benth. The first of these, which has also white flowers, may be recognized at once by these being in large lax panicles; they are small, on long, often slender peduncles, with acute calycine segments; the leaves also are longer and serrated. The V. buxifolia is a very fine alpine species, brought from the mountains of the interior by Dr. Dieffenbach, which differs from the V. odora in the leaves being more densely imbricated, shorter, shining on both sides, and remarkably truncate at the base above the petiole; it has also very short, often simple racemes, covered with large concave imbricating bracts, as in the V. Benthami, but closer; the tubes of the corolla are sometimes as long as the very broad segments,—that organ is thus truly hypocrateriform; the leaves are covered on both sides with more numerous minute white dots. V. lævis, Benth. is more nearly allied to our plant than any of the above in the form of the leaves, but they are more acute, more distantly placed, without any white dots; the panicles also are lax, minutely pubescent, the flowers smaller, and the branches singularly black and opake when dry, terete and wrinkled, with the transverse annuli or scars remote and inconspicuous, very unlike the generally crowded transverse contractions of its congeners, which often give the stem the appearance of being jointed.
The leaves are closely placed in V. odora, and each is jointed upon a thickening of the stem, which thickened portion appears like a broad petiole, united to the branch, and extending from the base of the true petiole to the leaf below, its edges almost meeting those of a similar thickening below the opposite leaf, but leaving a furrow between, which is covered with a fine pubescence. As this thickening occurs opposite and below each pair of leaves above it, and the furrow to the pair below, the stem is decussately furrowed throughout its length. In many, and in most species indeed, the stem is incrassated below the leaf, but the thickened portion has not, as here, the appearance of a distinct body.
Plate XLI. Fig. 1, portion of the stem and pair of leaves; fig. 2, flower; fig. 3, calyx; fig. 4, corolla; fig. 5, the same cut open; fig. 6, front, and fig. 7, back view of stamen; fig. 8, ovarium:—all magnified.
