Pimelea. | THYMELAEACEAE. 
branchlets, white, polygamo-dioecious. Perianth shaggy with straight 
silky hairs, }-}in. long. Fruit not seen.—P. Lyallii var. sericea Cheesem. 
Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 614. 
Var. linearis Cheesem. i. var.—Leaves narrower, linear-lanceolate. Otherwise 
much as in the type. 
Norra Istanp: Ruahine Mountains, Colenso! Hawke’s Bay, A. Hamilton! 
Sourn IstaND: Mount Peel, H. H. Allan! Otago—Kurow and other places in the 
Waitaki Valley, Buchanan! Petrie! Clutha Valley, Petrie! Crown Range and Cardrona, 
T. Kirk! Variety linearis: Near Kurow, Cockayne ! 
A very distinct little plant. In Kirk’s herbarium it was placed as a variety of 
P. virgata, and in the Manual I transferred it to P. Lyallii. In the light of more 
numerous and better specimens I now consider it to be a distinct species, more nearly 
allied to P. arenaria than any other. 
(nt RS prostrata Willd. Sp. Plant. i (1798) 51.—A small prostrate 
or suberect much-branched shrub; branches scarred, stout or slender, © 
long or short, from 4 or 6 in. to 2 ft. long; the younger ones usually more 
or less pubescent or sometimes glabrate, seldom white with villous hairs 
as in P. Urvilleana; bark dark-brown or reddish-brown. Leaves some- 
times crowded and quadrifariously imbricate, at other times laxly placed, 
erect or spreading or deflexed, 4,4 in. long, lanceolate or linear-oblong to 
elliptic-oblong or obovate-oblong, obtuse or acute, flat or concave, nerve- 
less or the midrib prominent beneath, usually glabrous on both surfaces ; 
floral leaves rather larger and broader. Flowers in few- or many-flowered 
heads at the tips of the branches, small, white, polygamo-dioecious. 
Perianth 3-1lin. long, more or less silky-villous or pilose, the females 
smaller and narrower than the males. Fruit usually baccate, white, ovoid, 
acute. — A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 174; A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) 
n, 346; Raoul Choix (1846) 42: Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 220; 
Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 244. Cookia prostrata Gmel. Syst. (1791) 24. 
-x Passerina prostrata Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) n. 172. Banksia prostrata 
Forst. Char. Gen. (1776) n. 3. P. laevigata Gaertn. Fruct. 1 (1788) 186, 
t. 39, f. 1; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 612. PP. rugulosa Col. in Trans. 
N.Z. Inst. xxi (1889) 102. P. microphylla, P. bicolor, and P. hetero- 
phylla Col. l.c. xxii (1890) 484-86. | 
Var. erecta.—Stems stout, erect or suberect. Heads usually many-flowered. 
Var. repens.—Stems more slender, procumbent or prostrate, often very diffusely 
branched. Flowers fewer and smaller. 
Var. alpina.—Stems stout, suberect or spreading, branches tortuous, scarred, 
often nearly glabrous. 
Nortu anp Sourn Istanps: From the Three Kings Islands and the North Cape 
southwards to the Bluff, abundant. Sea-level to 4500 ft. October—March. 
An almost polymorphous plant, the various forms of which are much in need of 
careful study and comparison. In the first edition of this work I accepted Gaertner’s 
name of Pimelea_tlaevigaia, published in 1788, that being the oldest name under the 
correct genus. But now that the Vienna Conference has decided that the oldest specific 
name under any genus is to have priority it is necessary to fall back upon the Forsters’ 
name of prostrata, published (under Banksia) in 1776 in their “‘ Characteres. Generum 
Plantarum.”’ | ’ 
12. P. Urvilleana 4. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. (1832) 175—A small widely 
spreading rather laxly branched procumbent shrub; branches 4-18 in. 
long, scarred, the younger ones white with copious short appressed 
silky hairs. Leaves close-set, usually quadrifariously imbricating, spreading 
Monae ele Seis 
