Lvs us. forming neat rosette; lamina c. 2.5 × 2.5 cm.; upper surface densely clad in long tapering hairs, undersurface foveolate, rather evenly covered with very short glandular hairs (only 2-3 cells long) with or without scattered longer non-glandular ones; similar very short glandular hairs often hidden under long hairs of upper surface. Peduncle short with compact infl. at fl., sts extending to 15 cm. long in fr., clad in long soft hairs; us. 1, occ. 2 pairs of sessile cauline lvs below floral bracts. Bracts us. in 1-5 pairs, occ. 3-(4) at upper nodes. Pedicels shaggy with long non-glandular hairs, us. with underlayer of very short glandular hairs. Calyx 8-9 mm. long, lobes 1·5-2 mm. wide, the anterior pair often slightly longer than the other three; hairs as on pedicels or long non-glandular hairs mostly marginal and short glandular hairs ∞.Corolla 2-2.5 cm. diam.

DIST.: S., St. Mountains from N.W. Nelson to Fiordland and on Mt. Anglem. Herbfield.

Type locality: Hill's Peak, Arthur Pass, 1410 m. altitude. Type: W, 4139, L. Cockayne No. 5996, 25/xii/97.

Cockayne's note to his No. 5996 is "Facing S in peaty loam in company with typical O. sessilifolia at base of rock" and he had labelled part of this collection (W 4128) "Ourisia sessilifolia var. splendida var. ined.", the same varietal name appearing also on plants he collected at the head of the Poulter River (W 4138). This and var. sessilifolia appear together on one herbarium sheet from some other localities, and apparently not infrequently grow together.

A specimen from Homer Cirque (W 4141b, J. T. Salmon, Dec. 1943, 3000 ft.) has an exceptionally tall and elongated infl. in which floral bracts are mostly in fours. An annotation by W. R. B. Oliver suggests that this is a hybrid with O. macrocarpa.

HYBRIDISM

In general the spp. seem to keep fairly distinct but the following hybrids are recorded by Cockayne and Allan (Ann. Bot., Lond. 48, 1934, 42): O. caespitosa × glandulosa; O. caespitosa × prorepens; O. cockayniana × prorepens; O. colensoi × macrophylla. These authors state: "O. colensoi is a small pilose species of much more restricted distribution than the larger, more glabrous, O. macrophylla. In certain localities hybrids are common." On the Volcanic Plateau many specimens difficult to place in either sp. may be of this origin. The relatively isolated population on Mt. Matthews, Orongorongo Mts, also shows a mixture of the characters of these two spp.

O. prorepens was described by Petrie (T.N.Z.I. 25, 1893, 272) on the basis of plants from Mt. Bonpland, 4000 ft. This collection, represented by three herbarium sheets (W 4303, 4304, A 8503), is uniform (except for one plant on A 8503 which matches O. sessilifolia var. sessilifolia) and shows the following features: creeping stem; lvs loosely distichously imbricate, crenate, petiole short and broad, lamina densely hairy above, less hairy below; peduncle slightly glandular-pubescent; bracts in pairs, lflike, crenate or shortly lobed, nearly glab.; calyx-lobes unequal, oblong, obtuse, glandular-pubescent and finely ciliate. Though Petrie describes the lvs as glandular-pilose only a few of the lf-hairs are gland-tipped, but those of peduncle, pedicel and calyx are mostly of the multicellular glandular type. Petrie compares his sp. with O. glandulosa and emphasizes as differentiating characters the "crenate or shortly-lobed bracts and the slight pubescence of the scape, bracts and flowers"; he has labelled as O. prorepens plants from Routeburn that are almost completely glab. and fit quite well into O. cockayniana. No plants exactly matching the Mt. Bonpland O. prorepens have been seen from other localities but closely approaching it are specimens from Amuri Pass, Mt. Alexander (Teremakau Valley), Mt. Kyeburn, Mt. Hamilton (Takitimu Range) and Wilmot Pass. The range in shape of bracts and in kind and arrangement of hairs suggests that these are the results of occ. crosses involving probably one of the vars of O. sessilifolia, O. caespitosa and posssibly other spp.

It has been pointed out above that O. cockayniana has sts been regarded as a hybrid between O. caespitosa and O. macrocarpa, and that the former sp. may cross with O. crosbyi and the latter with O. sessilifolia var. splendida. Puzzling specimens from N.W. Nelson may be due to hybridism, but suggest rather that there may still be undescribed taxa in this area.