Plantago.| PLANTAGINES. 571 
hispid ; petioles villous at the base with long brown silky hairs. 
Scapes longer than the leaves, few or many, slender, strict, pilose, 
terminating in a rather dense spike 4-lin. long. Bracts orbicular, 
obtuse, glabrous, broadly margined. Calyx-segments broadly 
ovate, with a thick fleshy keel and broad membranous margins, 
glabrous. Corolla-tube about as long as the calyx, lobes very 
small. Capsule twice as long as the calyx, conic, acute; seeds 
usually 4.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 208; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 228. 
P. varia, A. Cunn. Precur. n. 370. (not of R. Br.); Raoul, Chorz, 
44. P. dasyphylla, Col. in. Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxiv. (1892) 393. 
Norte anpD SoutH Isnanps, StEwart IstAND: Common throughout, on 
moist banks, &c. Sea-level to 3500 ft. Flowers throughout the spring and 
summer. 
Very closely allied to the Australian P. varia, which has become sparingly 
naturalised in the colony, but the spike is shorter and more glabrous, and the 
flowers are smaller. 
3. P. spathulata, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 208.—Rootstock 
short, stout. Leaves numerous, all radical, spreading, rosulate, 
very variable in size and shape, 1-d in. long, obovate-spathulate to 
oblong-spathulate or lanceolate-spathulate, obtuse or subacute, 
narrowed into rather long broad petioles, rather thick and fleshy, 
entire or more usually irregularly sinuate-toothed, sometimes 
almost pinnatifid, sparingly pilose or almost glabrate; petioles 
villous at the base. Scapes usually numerous, longer than the 
leaves, slender, villous or pilose; spike oblong, obtuse, densely 
many-flowered, +-lin. long. Bracts and calyx-segments broadly 
ovate, acute, with a thick fleshy centre, pilose and ciliate. Corolla- 
lobes ovate, acute. Capsule not much longer than the calyx, 
broadly oblong, apiculate. Seeds 3 or 4.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 227. 
NortH Istanp: Hast Cape district, Bishop Williams, Adams and Petrie! 
Hawke’s Bay and coast between Castlepoint and Cape Palliser, Colenso ! 
SourH Istanp: Not uncommon throughout. Sea-level to 3500 ft. 
Easily distinguished from P. Raouwlw by the shorter and broader more 
rosulate leaves, shorter scapes, pilose and ciliate bracts and calyx-segments, and 
shorter and broader capsule. 
4. P. Brownii, Rapin in Mem. Soc. Linn. Par, vi. (1827) 485. 
—Small, tufted, rather fleshy. Rhizome short, stout, woolly 
amongst the leaves or quite glabrous. Leaves very numerous, all 
radical, spreading, rosulate, 4-2in. long, oblong-lanceolate or 
spathulate, acute or obtuse, narrowed into a broad petiole, more 
or less sinuate-toothed or entire, rather thick and fleshy, glabrous 
or pilose with scattered jointed hairs. Scapes many, variable in 
length, equalling the leaves or much longer than them, pilose or 
glabrous. Flowers small, usually from 2 to 5, but in depauperated 
Specimens the spike is often reduced to a single flower, and in 
large specimens the flowers may be as many as 6-8. Bracts and 
