Description.— Shrub, 13-3 ft. high. Branches straight, 
round, clothed with a red-brown felt when young. Leaves 
opposite, on long stalks, rather thick, almost fleshy, base 
ovate and rounded or sometimes lanceolate and wedge- 
shaped, 44 to 6 in. long without the stalk, 24 to 4 in. 
broad, acute, 5-nerved above the base, at first sparsely 
furnished with small bristles, margin minutely toothed ; 
stalks round, 1} to 3 in. long. ower-heads numerous, 
nearly 1 in. across, in terminal, erect, compound clusters, 
4 to 6 in. across; stalks umbellately arranged. Sracts of 
the involucre about 40, in 3 or 4 series, thin, hairy, red- 
brown, linear, outer ones shorter, filiform, all acute, inner 
ones nearly as long as the corollas. J Vowers all tubular, 
lilac. Stamens included. Styles exserted, very long, filiform, 
divergent. Achenes very small, glabrous; bristles of the 
pappus soft, white, about a third shorter than the corolla.— 
W. Borriva Hemsiry. 
Cuurivation.—This species has long been cultivated in 
the Birmingham Botanic Gardens under the erroneous name 
of Hebeclinium ianthinum. It is, however, superior, in a 
decorative sense, to . (H.) ianthinum, the heads of flowers 
being fuller and richer in colour, while the leaves also are more 
handsome. It grows quickly into a shapely specimen 2 ft. 
or so high and is in full flower in mid-winter. Although 
it will grow and flower in an ordinary greenhouse this plant 
is seen at its best under good cultivation in a tropical house. 
Cuttings rooted in early summer and grown on in pots in a 
moist stove quickly grow into handsome specimens; they 
last in flower a month or more—W. Warson. 
Fig. 1, a flower-head ; 2, and 8, bracts of the involucre; 4, a flower; 5, a 
bristle of the pappus; 6, anthers; 7, an unopened flower :—all enlarged. 
