756 BORAGINACEAE. [ Myosotis. 
obovate, obtuse or apiculate, membranous, hispidulous on both suriaces 3 
cauline smaller and on shorter petioles. Flowers smali, 3 in. long, white 
with a yellow eye, solitary, axillary or springing from the branches near 
the leaves. Calyx hispid with long straight hairs, cut j?-way down; 
lobes linear-lanceolate, acute. Corolla funnel-shaped ; tube short, hardly 
exceeding the calyx, throat naked or furnished with 5 scales, limb equalling 
the tube or slightly longer than it. Stamens inserted on the corolla-tube ; 
filaments longer than the anthers, sometimes elongated ; anthers altogether 
above the level of the scales and frequently reaching #-way up the corolla- 
lobes. Nutlets ovoid, pale-brown, smooth and shining, much compressed, 
margins thin.—DC. Prodr. x (1846) 112; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 
201; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 193; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 466. 
Anchusa spathulata R. Br. ex Roem. and Schult. Syst. iv (1819) 100; 
A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) n. 392; Raoul Choix (1846) 48. 
NortH AND SoutH Istanps, CHatHam ISLANDS, STEWART ISLAND: From the 
Three Kings Islands southwards in moist lowland stations, but not common. 
A very variable plant. Small states sometimes have the throat of the corolla 
either without scales or with very obscure ones. This character was used by De Candoile 
to constitute his subgenus Gymnomyosotis, but there is a gradual transition from flowers 
without scales to others in which they are as well developed as in other species of the 
genus, and looking at the fact that the filaments are at least longer than the anthers 
it seems best to place the species in the subgenus Hxarrhena, and in the neighbourhood 
of M. petiolata. 
20. M. petiolata Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. 1 (1853) 202.—Perennial ; sparsely 
clothed with short white scabrid hairs; rootstock long, stout or slender ; 
stems usually numerous, decumbent or prostrate at the base, then ascending, 
slender, sparingly leafy, 6-14in. long. Radical and lower cauline leaves 
on long slender petioles $-3 in. long; blade 3-2 in., broadly elliptic-oblong 
or elliptic-obovate, apiculate or rounded or retuse at the tip, thin and 
membranous, both surfaces slightly scabrid ; upper cauline sessile, broadly 
obovate-spathulate. | Racemes long, slender, many-flowered, simple or 
forked. Flowers {-$ in. diam., white or white with a yellow eye ; pedicels 
rather long, slender, spreading. Calyx clothed with straight appressed 
hairs, 5-lobed almost to the base; lobes linear, acute. Corolla broad, 
campanulate ; tube very short, with 5 scales at the throat; limb several 
times longer than the tube, deeply 5-lobed; lobes oblong, spreading. 
Stamens with long and slender filaments; anthers far exserted beyond 
the tube, almost reaching the top of the corolla-lobes. Nutlets broadly 
ovoid, polished and shining, dark red-brown or black.—Cheesem. Man. 
N.Z. Fl. (1906) 467. M. diversifolia Petrie in Trans. N.Z. Inst. 1 (1918) 
208. Exarrhena petiolata Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 467. 
Norra Istanp: Cliffs north of the Manukau Harbour, 7. F. O. ; East Cape, Bishop 
Willams! Hawke’s Bay and Cape Turnagain, Colenso/ Patangata, Tryon ; phine — 
Mountains, H. Hill! SoutnIstanp: Mount Arthur Plateau, 7. F.C. ; Cobb Valley, 
F. G. Gibbs / Sea-level to 3000 ft. November—January. 
__ The typical state of this handsome plant is generaliy found on wooded coastal 
cliffs. Mr. Petrie (Trans. N.Z. Inst. 1 (1918) p. 209) confines the species to such, 
remarking that “the montane plants referred to it probably belong elsewhere.” But 
specimens gathered by myself on the Mount Arthur Plateau, Nelson, differ in no respect 
except the slightly smaller size. In the mode of growth, shape of the leaves, and in the 
structure of the flowers and their colour, there is almost complete correspondence.. 
Of Mr. Petrie’s M. diversifolia I have only seen a single specimen, which I hesitate to 
separate without fuller material. It may be the same as mv M. Astoni, which is very 
near to M. petiolata. | , ] 
