270 COMPOSIT& (Harv.) [| Metalasia. 
subtended by a few leaves; inv. glabrate, the outer scales subcanescent, 
acute or mucronate, close-pressed, the inner sub-biseriate, oblong, acute, 
curving back at the extremity, whitish ; pappus club-shaped, obtuse. 
Has. Hott.-Holl.-berge, Mundt! Stellenbosch, Ecklon. (Herb. Hk., D.) 
Very like M. tenuifolia in habit, but the heads are constantly 5-flowered, and the 
inner inv. scales longer, spreading or recurved at the point. The leaves are either 
approximate and slightly gemmuliferous ; or widely apart, quite nude. The inner 
iny. scales are like those of M. Lichtensteinit. 
15. M. aurea (Don. Wern. Trans. 5, p. 558) ; leaves linear-involute, 
rigid, squarrose, pungent-mucronate, spirally twisted, with axillary leaf- 
tufts; heads cylindrical, 4—5-fl., crowded in a branching, hemispherical 
corymb; inv. glabrescent, the outer scales appressed, sharply mucronate, 
inner uniseriate scarcely exserted, round-topped, mucronulate, dull-yel- 
low; pappus bristles slender, serrulate, slightly thickened at the point. 
DC. l. ¢. 250. 
Has. Uitenhage and Albany, Mundt! FE. &Z.! Drege! Elands river, Zey.! 2896. 
(Herb. Cap., D., Hk., Sd.) 
Erect, 1-2 feet high, corymbosely branched ; branches virgate. Leaves commonly 
4 inch long, rarely 2-3 lines, horizontally spreading or deflexed, shining, very sharp. 
Heads rather few or very numerous, shortly pedicelled, 3 lines long, not a line diam.; 
the outer scales silvery, with a brownish or yellowish rib, ending in a mucro. Pap- 
pus finely serrulate, with a lance-linear tip. A small specimen from Drege, in Herb. 
Sond., marked “‘ 17. octoflora” DC., has but 5 fl. in the head, and in no respect differs 
from M. aurea. Is this really M. octoflora, DC. ? 
16. M. pulcherrima (Less.! Syn. 340); leaves lanceolate, pungent- 
mucronate, straight, erect, close-set, convex-keeled and shining beneath, 
concave and woolly above, not gemmuliferous ; heads cylindr., 3-4~—5-f1, 
crowded in hemispherical branching corymbs ; outer inv. scales cob- 
webby, tawny, erect or spreading, aristate-acuminate, inner white or 
yellowish, acute. DC. 1. c. 253, also M. lanceolata, DC. p. 251. Stoebe 
gnaphalodes, Thunb.! Cap. 726. 
Var. a. pallescens ; invol. scales creamy white or whitish. M. lanceolata, DC.! 
Var. B. lutescens; inv. scales straw colour or pale yellowish. M. pulcherrima, DO.! 
Has. Cape, Thunberg! Langekloof, Drege! Vanstaadensberg, E. 4 Z./ . Eastern 
ee posesert Drakensteenberg, Drege/ Swellendam, Ecklon, (Herb. Th., D., 
This species is readily known by its erect, boat-shaped leaves, without axillary 
tufts. Leaves 2-4 lines long, 1 line wide. Heads 3 lineslong. Thunberg’s specimen 
has the heads 5-fl. ; Ecklon’s mostly 3-fl., and in Drege’s I have observed 3, 4, and § 
fl. ina head, There is no external char. of foliage, and only the colour of the invol. 
to separate “ M. lanceolata” from this. Ecklon’s specimens, marked “M. pulcherrima,” 
in Hb. Sond. and Pappe, belong to Stoebe gomphrenoides. 
17. M. muricata (Less.! Syn. 356); leaves linear or lance-linear (in 
8. and «, elliptic-oblong), mucronate, with leaf-tufts, more or less spirally 
_ twisted, spreading ; heads cylindrical, 3-4~5-fl., crowded in a hemi- 
spherical, branching corymb ; inv. scales glabrescent, appressed, the 
outer either obtuse, acute, or cuspidate-mucronate ; inner milk-white 
or rosy, sub-biseriate, exserted, obtuse or acute. MW. muricata, fastigiata, 
polyanthos, and pungens, Don. Gnaph. muricatum, Linn. Gn, polyanthos 
and G. fastigiatum, Th.! Cap. 643. Sieb. no. 17. 
