Pimelea.] 
LXVII. TIIVMELE/E. 
245 
leana ; the glabrous leaves and smaller flowers, from P. Lyallii; the var. 7 looks different, 
but is certainly ouly an alpine form. 
9. P. Lyallii, Hook. f. FI. N. Z. i. 222. A small, prostrate or sub- 
erect, very pilose, rarely glabrescent species ; branches short and suberect, or 
long and trailing, 2-20 in. long, covered with grey or silky pubescence, rarely 
glabrous, bark brown. Leaves usually close-set and imbricating, erect or 
patent, i— | in. long, oblong or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, silky with 
long hairs chiefly on the lower surface, concave, nerveless ; floral the same 
as the cauline. Flowers J in. long, silky. Ovary pilose. 
Northern Island: between the Ruahine range and Taupo, Colenso. Middle Island: 
Ruapuke Island and Port William, Lyall ; Southern Alps, alt. 1500-2500 ft., Sinclair and 
Haast ; Gordon’s Nob, Munro ; Wairau mountains, alt. 3-5500 ft., Travers ; Otago, Waitaki 
valley, abundant, Hector and Buchanan. This resembles small specimens of P. virgata, but 
is of a totally different habit. From P. prostrata the silky leaves distinguish it. Travers and 
Buchanan send excellent series of forms, amongst which some have all hut glabrous leaves, 
and hence run into prostrata. Haast sends from shingle flats ou the Macaulay and Godley 
rivers, alt. 3000 ft., a stout, erect, small plant, with much the habit of states of P. Lyallii, 
but the leaves are more coriaceous and glabrous. 
10. P. sericeo-villosa, Hook. /., n. sp. A small, prostrate, much 
branched, densely tufted species, densely villous with w'hitish shining silky 
hairs ; branchlets very short, leafy. Leaves close-set, £ in. long, linear- 
oblong, obtuse, concave, equally villous above and below. Flowers few, densely 
silky, i in. long. Ovary villous with long hairs. 
Middle Island: Macrae’s Run, Munro ;■ Wairau mountains, Travers ; Otago, Waitaki 
river, Hector and Buchanan. This, from all the above habitats, keeps its characters so 
perfectly, that it is difficult to suppose it to be a form of P. Lyallii, from which it differs 
iu the more depressed habit, much shorter branchlets, and far more copious, silky clothing. 
2. DRAPETES, Lamarck. 
Small, tufted, moss-like herbs or suft'ruticose plants. Leaves small, linear, 
crowded. Flowers solitary or few together, inconspicuous, terminal. — Pe- 
rianth tubular or funnel-shaped ; limb 4-fid ; throat sometimes furnished with 
4 small glands or scales opposite the lobes. Stamens 4, alternate with the 
lobes ; filaments subulate. Style terminal or lateral, filiform ; stigma capi- 
tate. Nut small. Albumen copious. 
A small southern alpine and Antarctic genus, containing a New Zealand, a Tasmanian, a 
Ruegian, and a Bornean species ; it has been split into three genera by Endlicher and Meisner, 
according as the tube of the perianth is continuous or transversely articulate, and its throat 
naked or provided with glands. 
Leaves linear or linear-oblong. Perianth funnel-shaped . . . . 1 . D. Bieffenbacliii. 
Leaves ovate-oblong. Perianth campanulate 2. D. Lyallii. 
1. D. Dieffenbachii, Hook. Lond. Journ. Pot. ii. 497. t. 17 ; — FI. N. 
Z. i. 222. A small, densely tufted, moss-like plant; branches slender, 6-12 
in. long. Leaves imbricated, £ in. long, linear, obtuse, bearded at the tip, 
keeled at the back. Flowers terminal, solitary or fascicled, as long as the 
leaves, very shortly pedicelled. Perianth not articulate ; throat with 4 
glands. 
Northern Island: Mount Egmont, Bieffenbach ; Tongariro, Bidwill ; Ruahine range 
