Tap. 66538. 
CE LMISIA SPECTABILIS. 
Native of New Zealand. 
Nat. Ord. Compostrm.—Tribe ASTEROIDER. 
Genus Cenmista, Cass.; (Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. vol. ii. p. 278.) 
CrLMisia spectabilis ; vhizomate descendente robusto, foliis rigide coriaceis ensi- 
formibus lineari-oblongis v. elliptico-lanceolatis acutis v. obtusis erectis in 
vaginas elongatas tumidas sericeo-villosas angustatis, supra glabris v. sparse 
sericeo-pilosis nervis parallelis impressis, subtus lana pallide straminea v. fulva 
densissime opertis nervis obscuris, marginibus planis v. recurvis integerrimis v. 
obscure serrulatis, scapis foliis aquilongis v. superantibus validis laxe sericeo- 
lanatis 1-floris, bracteis numerosis linearibus erectis, capitulo 2-poll. diam., 
involucri late obconici lanati bracteis linearibus, ligulis numerosissimis albis v. 
pallide lilacinis revolutis, disci corollis aureis, acheniis glaberrimis, pappi setis 
valde inequalibus. 
C. spectabilis, Hook.f. F/. Nov. Zeald. vol. i. p. 122, t. 33; Handbook of New 
Zeald. Flora, p. 134, 
The genus Celmisia is one of the most beautiful of the 
New Zealand Flora, and contains nearly thirty species, all 
well worthy of cultivation, many of them indeed being 
extremely handsome; yet, strange to say, the species here 
figured is the only one hitherto introduced into this country, 
and that quite lately. The genus represents in New Zealand 
the Asters and Erigerons of the Old and New Worlds, which 
genera are otherwise absent in that archipelago, differing 
from them by very slight characters, chiefly in the presence 
of very short processes at the base of the anther-cells and 
in the achenes being usually neither flattened nor ribbed. 
The specimen of CO. spectabilis here figured gives no idea of 
the stature which the species attains, or of the curious dwarf 
forms it sometimes assumes. In its largest state the base 
of the stem, clothed with silky leaf-sheaths, is as thick as a 
child’s wrist, and the leaves a foot long and twenty to 
thirty in number; whilst the smallest forms have only a 
_ few leaves, and these little more than one inch long, linear- 
OCTOBER lst, 1882. 
