Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/464

424 branches for some distance below the tips. Flowers rather small, narrow.—D. Urvilleanum, ''A. Rich.; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 415; Raoul, Choix, 44; Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 49; Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 169.

Var. filifolium.—Branches long, slender; bark black or chestnut-brown. Leaves long, 2½–5 in., very narrow, often flexuose, canaliculate above.—D. filifolium, ''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 169. D. setifolium, ''Stchegel. in Bull. Soc. Nat. Mosc.'' xxxii. (1859) i. 23. D. virgatum and D. heterophyllum, ''Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xxviii. (1896) 605. (?)D. pungens. Col. l.c. 602.

Var. Lessonianum.—Branches stouter. Leaves 1½–3 in. long, strict, flat above, convex beneath. Racemes 6–12-flowered; flowers usually larger.—D. Lessonianum, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 223; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 416; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel.'' i. 170. Some forms of this approach D. longifolium very closely.

Var. montanum.—Smaller and stouter, often densely branched. Leaves ¾–2 in. long, erect or spreading, broad at the base and gradually narrowed into the sheath, which is not auricled above. Flowers in stout terminal or lateral spike-like racemes ½–1 in. long; bracts broad, concave. This is allied to D. scoparium, and was included in it by Hooker, but the leaves are quite glabrous.

Var. a. abundant on dry hills from the North Cape to Nelson; var. filifolium, from the Bay of Islands to Wellington, ascending to 4500 ft. on Mount Egmont and the Ruahine Mountains, &c.; var. Lessonianum, from Rotorua southwards to Stewart Island, usually in mountain districts; var. montanum, Mount Hikurangi, Tongariro and Ruapehu, Ruahine Mountains, Tararua Mountains, and apparently not uncommon in the mountains of the South Island, from 2500 ft. to 4500 ft.

At first sight the extreme forms of this look very distinct, but they are connected by so many transitional stages that I think Sir J. D. Hooker was right in referring them to a single species.

10. D. Pearsoni, ''T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xvii. (1885) 223.—Apparently a stout erect much-branched shrub; branches with the leaves on nearly ½ in. diam. Leaves numerous, close-set, densely imbricating, erect and appressed to the branch, ¾–1 in. long; sheathing base ⅙ in. wide, not auricled nor truncate at the tip, margins ciliate; blade $1⁄20$ in. wide at the base, linear-subulate, pungent, rounded on the back, flat or convex in front, smooth and polished, glabrous, margins minutely denticulate. Flower's small, ⅕ in. long, in dense 3–6-flowered spike-like racemes ½–¾ in. long. Sepals ovate, acuminate, rather shorter than the corolla-tube, margins ciliate. Corolla-lobes ovate-triangular, acute. Capsule obovoid, included within the persistent calyx-lobes.

11. D. scoparium, Hook. f. Fl. Antarct. i. 46.—A shrub or small tree, sometimes 20 ft. high or more; bark dark chestnut-brown; branches dense, erect. Leaves crowded at the tips of the branches, strict, erect, ¾–3 in. long; sheathing base ⅛–⅙ in. broad,