Helichrysum.]} COMPOSITZ (Harv.) 217 
Has. Kamiesberg, £. § Z.! Konstapel, in the Carroo, Drege! (Hb. Sd., Hk., D.) 
An intricately-branched, slender shrublet, a foot high, the twigs horizontally 
spre . . Branches and twigs dark-brown, covered with short-stalked glands, 
which rub off, leaving them bare. Lys. 4-6 lines long, not 1 line wide, mostly naked. 
18. H. ericefolium (Less. Syn. 314); stem suffruticose or shrubby, 
loosely or divaricately much branched, naked or woolly; leaves linear, 
sessile, spreading, crowded or scattered, obtuse, with revolute margins, 
woolly or glabrous; heads sessile, aggregated, 3~6 together at the ends 
of the twigs (rarely solitary), surrounded by leaves, 8-12 fl. ; inv. scales 
in few rows, oblong, subacute, obtuse or denticulate, pale-horn colour, 
pure white or reddish. DC..c.172. Gnaph. ericoides, Linn.—Th.! Cap. 
647, and Stoebe aspera, Th. Cap. 728. 
Var. a. vulgare; shrubby, much branched; adult leaves glabrous; inv. scales 
horn-colour, subacute or toothed. WH. ericefol., DC. l.c.—Zey./ 2903, a. and 8. 
Var. 8. albidulum (DC.); leaves and branches white-woolly; inv. scales often 
purple. DC.1.c. Zey.! 2903 B. and 2904. 
VaR. ¥. metalasioides ; shrubby, adult leaves glabrous, crowded ; inv. scales snow- 
white, subacute. HH. metalasioides, DC.l.c.171. Zey.! 2905. H.callunoides? Sch. B. 
Van. 5. laxum; half-shrubby, straggling, loosely and divaricately branched; leaves 
sub-distant, woolly or glabrate ; heads 2-3 together or solitary ; inv. scales horn-colour, 
subacute. H.laxum, E. Mey. DOC.l.c.p. 171. 
Var. ¢. lineare; habit and foliage of var. a, but the inv. scales more obtuse. H. 
Uneare, DC. 1. c. p. 172, excl. var. B. H. comosum, Sch. B. in Hb. Krauss! No. 421. 
Has. Mountain places throughout the colony and in Caffraria, common. Port 
Natal, Krauss! 421. (Herb. Th., Hk., D., Sd.) 
Certainly a very variable plant in ramification and indument, yet I find it difficult 
to draw clear lines between the above forms. Of H. metalasioides, DC. I have only 
seen Ecklon’s specimens, which seem to differ chiefly in the brighter white of their 
inv. leaves. 2. laxum, E.M.! seems to be merely a weak growing plant, and H/. 
lineare (excl. var. B.), only differs from H. ericefoliwm (verum) by its blunter invol. 
scales, surely a very inconstant character. H. callunoides, Sch. B. (Comp. Kraus. 
p. 15) by description, seems referable to one or other of our vars. ; perhaps to var. +. 
14, H. cespititium (Sond.) ; dwarf, shrubby, prostrate, excessively 
branched and ramulous; twigs very short, erect, densely leafy ; leaves 
linear, spreading, obtuse, with revolute margins, glabrous (the younger 
cobwebby); heads 3-6 together (or solitary) at the ends of the twigs, 
sessile, surrounded by leaves, homogamous, 12-15-fl.; inv. scales loosely 
imbricated, squarrose, snow-white or rosy, broadly oblong, obtuse or 
subacute. HH. lineare 8. coespititium, DC. 1. ¢. 172. 
Has. Tambukiland, Drege! Ecklon! Aapjes R., Burke! Queenstown District, on 
iron-stone hillocks, in the flats, Mrs. F. W. Barber, No. 314. Natal, W. T. Gerrard! 
(Herb. D., Hk., Sd.) 
Except by its very peculiar, prostrate habit and crowded, minute leafy twigs, this 
scarcely differs from H. ericefolium, of which it may possibly be merely an extreme 
variety. Specimens from different habitats have all the same characters. 
15. H. simulans (Hary. and Sond.) ; shrubby or suffruticose, divari- 
cately much branched ; twigs canous; leaves sessile, linear, flat, obtuse, 
on both sides silvery with close-lying, short indument; heads sessile, 
solitary at the end of short twigs, subtended by leaves, 12-15-fl.; inv. 
scales imbricated in few rows, the outer ones short, obtuse, inner acute 
or acuminate, all rufous-horn colour, scarious, semi-pellucid. 
