Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/468

428  Tararua Range, Buchanan! Common in mountain districts throughout. Var. politum: Maungatua, near Dunedin, Petrie! Mount Anglem and Smith's Lookout (Stewart Island), Kirk! 2500–5500 ft. December–March.

17. D. prostratum, ''T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst.'' xiii. (1881) 384.—A small prostrate species; stems 3–12 in. long, sometimes slender and sparingly divided, sometimes robust and copiously branched, but the branches never so closely compacted as in D. muscoides. Leaves imbricating, erect, incurved when dry, ⅛–¼ in. long; sheathing base short, with broad thin margins, narrowed into a linear-subulate blade, which is obtuse or subacute at the tip, coriaceous, convex at the back, flat or slightly concave in front, curved, margins minutely serrulate. Flowers solitary, terminating the branches, ⅙ in. long, white. Sepals ovate, subacute, rather shorter than the corolla-tube. Corolla-lobes broadly ovate-triangular.

18. D. muscoides, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 183.—A small densely tufted rigid little plant, forming rounded masses a few inches in diameter; branches short, densely packed, clothed with minute closely imbricating leaves. Leaves $1⁄10$–$1⁄8$ in. long, very thick and coriaceous, rigid, concave; sheathing base about half the length, broadly ovate, margins thin; tip short, subulate, polished, semiterete, obtuse or more rarely subacute. Flower solitary, terminal, ⅙ in. long, white. Sepals ovate, subacute, as long as the corolla. Corolla-tube short and broad, cylindrical; lobes very broad, obtuse or subacute.





Perennial or more rarely annual herbs. Leaves all radical, or cauline, and if so, opposite or alternate or whorled; stipules wanting. Flowers hermaphrodite, regular. Calyx usually inferior (half-superior in Samolus), 4–9-lobed or -partite. Corolla gamopetalous, with as many lobes as divisions of the calyx, lobes imbricate or contorted. Stamens equal in number to the corolla-lobes and