Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/456

416 E. Sinclairii differs from E. pauciflora in no respect except that the leaves are not narrowed into short acuminate points. But the amount of acumination is so variable in E. pauciflora, the points being longer and sharper in young plants, and shorter and broader or almost absent in old ones, that I can entertain no doubt as to the specific identity of the two plants.

2. E. alpina, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 166.—A small erect or spreading rarely decumbent much-branched shrub 1–4 ft. high, seldom more; branches twiggy, densely leafy, puberulous at the lips. Leaves suberect or spreading, small, ⅛–⅙ in. long, broadly elliptical or broadly ovate, obtuse, shortly petiolate, very thick and coriaceous, quite glabrous, concave, veiuless. Flowers small, white, numerous towards the tips of the branches. Peduncles short; bracts few, 5–6, broad, obtuse. Calyx-lobes obtuse. Corolla much as in E. pauciflora, but smaller.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 179. E. affinis, ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xx. (1888) 199.

Much-branched erect or spreading shrubs. Leaves flat. Flowers white or pink, in few-flowered terminal racemes. Bracts caducous. Calyx of 5 almost free sepals. Corolla-tube rather broad, ventricose-cylindrical or almost campanulate; lobes 5, short, spreading or recurved, imbricate in the bud. Stamens 5, affixed to the throat of the corolla; filaments very short; anthers broad, attached about the middle. Hypogynous disc short, cupular or of 5 free scales. Ovary 5-celled and deeply 5-lobed: style columnar, inserted in a broad depression at the top of the ovary; stigma dilated, more or less distinctly 5-lobed; ovules numerous in each cell. Capsule 5-celled, loculicidally 5-valved. Seeds numerous.