CoLENSO. — On New PJuenogainic PLaniH. 467 



mountain region), but, I think, clearly distinct from both. I 

 received but a few small specimens of this plant, and half 

 of them were destitute of flowei's. 



Order XXXIX. Composit.I:]. 

 Genus 1. Olearia, Mcench. 



1. O. ramuUflora, sp. nov. 



A tall erect much-branched shrub, Sft.-lOft. high ; branch- 

 lets opposite, very long, slender, erect and drooping, often 

 simple, angled, striate, bark reddish-brown. Leaves few, 

 small, opposite, fascicled usually in fours, distant, sub ^in.-liii. 

 apart on branchlets, or springing from knobbed nodes with 

 2-3 small obtuse brown hairy bracts at base, linear-spathulate, 

 3-4 lines long, 1 line broad, obtuse, rather thickish ; margins 

 entire, recurved ; tapering into petiole 1 line long ; dark-green 

 and glabrous above (but young ones with a few scattered weak 

 sub-strigillose hairs), whitish below with fine closely-appressed 

 hairs which are reddish on petioles, and also on midrilj when 

 young ; hairs narrow lanceolate, peltate. Heads numerous, 

 2-4-fascicled together with the leaves (sometimes but rarely 

 solitary), broadly campanulate, 3 lines long, on long slender 

 peduncles 3 lines long, curved, pubescent, bibracteate ; bracts 

 opposite, ovate, acuminate, spreading, pubescent. Involucral 

 scales 12, in 2 (sub 3) rows, spreading, strigosely hairy, some- 

 times glabrous; the outer generally 5, short, linear-ovate; the 

 inner 7-8, hnear, obtuse, 2 lines long, tips woolly and, with 

 margins, much ciliate. Florets generally 12 ; of the disc 4, 

 the ray 8, whitish, their tubes and 2 lobes of the disc-corolla 

 slightly hairy ; hairs long, straight ; tube of ray-florets very 

 short, its Ihnb largely trifid ; lobes linear, 1 -nerved ; stigma 

 very long, glabrous, dark-coloured; style of disc-fioret Hattish, 

 veined ; stigma (sometimes trifid) long, spreadijig, each lobe 

 1-nerved ; tips acute, dark-coloured, roughly tuberculate ; 

 tubercles linear. Pappus few, erect, shorter than Horet, 

 white, shining, slightly scab rid, not thickened at top ; tips 

 acute. Receptacle small, pitted, ridgj^ Achene small, linear, 

 Tj^^in. long, dark-coloured, glabrous, with a few short pale 

 spreading hairs at top. 



Hab. Sides of streamlets, open ground, south of Danne- 

 virke. County of Waipawa ; 1887-88 : W. C. (Flowering in 

 December.) 



Obs. This species is pretty nearly allied to 0. virgata, 

 Hook, f . ; differing, however, in several important characters — 

 as, in its larger size, its very long pendulous and siruple 

 branchlets, its smaller leaves, more numerous fascicled heads, 

 its more and longer involucral scales, bibracteate peduncles, 

 and its greater lunnber of ray-fiorets, with longer limb. 



