Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/651

Pimelea.]

5. P. virgata, Vahl. Enum. i. 306.—A slender erect much-branched shrub 1–4 ft. high; branches long, slender, virgate, slightly ringed with the scars of the fallen leaves, younger ones more or less clothed with appressed silky hairs. Leaves spreading, close together or remote, not imbricate, almost sessile, ½–1 in. long, linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, not coriaceous, flat, nerveless, usually glabrous above, pilose with appressed silky hairs beneath; floral leaves similar or occasionally larger and ovate-lanceolate. Flowers in compact 6–12-flowered heads at the tips of the branches, sometimes becoming axillary by the rapid growth of leafy shoots springing from beneath the heads. Perianth ¼–⅓ in. long,, densely silky-villous; tube swollen at the base; lobes ovate, obtuse. Fruit usually baccate, white, ovoid-oblong, ⅙–¼ in. long, often hairy at the tip.—''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 173; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 345; Raoul, Choix, 42; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 220; Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 243. P. pilosa, ''Willd. Sp. Plant.'' i. 50. P. dichotoma, Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxii. (1890) 485. Passerina pilosa, Linn. f. StippL 226; Forst. Prodr. n. 171.

6. P. Haastii, T. Kirk in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xii. (1880) 396.—"A strict low-growing shrub 6–10 in. high; branches few (?), very slender, white with silky hairs. Leaves in distant pairs, petioled, ascending, narrow-lanceolate, ¾–1¼ in. long, acute, hairy below or nearly glabrous, margins recurved; floral leaves similar. Flowers 5–8 in a head, very small; perianth swollen below, silky; lobes narrow, spreading. Filaments short. Style equalling the perianthtube. Fruit not seen."