Colenso. — On Phaenogams. 387 



o l 



Order XXXIX. Composite. 

 Genus 1. Olearia, Moench. 



1. 0. multiflora, sp. nov. 



A low much-branched close-growing shrub, 2ft. -3ft. high 

 and 2ft. -3ft. diameter ; branchlets bark, dull greyish-brown. 

 Leaves alternate, chartaceous, about iin. apart, broadly elliptic, 

 petioled, 2Jin.-2fin. long, Hin.-2in. broad, margin upper 

 three-fourths sinuate-crenate, crenatures few (5-8), dis- 

 tant, lower portion plain, grass-green, glabrous and shining 

 above, pale greyish-green below, with closely appressed hairs 

 (young leaves pale, and very hairy on both sides), tip acute; 

 base truncate and slightly dimidiate, the right side shorter ; 

 midrib and veins hairy above, hairs white, appressed, glisten- 

 ing ; midrib below stout and with primary veins coloured 

 brown, prominent ; the veins few, distant, alternate, curvilinear 

 and intramarginal, and not at right angles ; petioles stout, 

 firm, subterete, ^in. long, channelled above, bases slightly de- 

 current, densely hairy, with closely appressed brown hairs 

 (and so branchlets). Inflorescence subterminal and axillary, 

 semi-erect in thick spreading many-branched corymbs, ped- 

 uncles slender, subfasciculate, 3-6 together, sub 3in. long, 

 pale-grey, pubescent, each much and dichotomously branched 

 at top into 3-5 subpeduncles, each bearing 2-4 heads ; 

 pedicels very slender, 2-3 lines long, each with a small linear- 

 ovate bracteole, appressed at base. Heads very numerous, 

 close, small, oblong, 2^ lines long, 3 lines diameter. Involu- 

 cral scales few, distant, imbricate in 4 rows, ovate, hairy, the 

 outermost shortest, the innermost longest, their tips truncate 

 and very woolly. Florets — of ray, 8, limb white, 4-nerved, tip 

 trifid, recurved, tube hairy ; — of disk, 6-7, limb pale-yellow, 

 5-cleft, pubescent on outside ; stigmas exserted, obtuse, 

 rough ; pappus few, erect, scabrid, acute, irregular, red-pink, 

 shorter than florets, that of ray as long as tube. Achene 

 linear, ^ line long, angled, pubescent ; hairs minute, white, 

 glistening. Receptacle ridgy, with rather large intervening 

 scales. 



Hub. On Ruahine mountain-range, County Waipawa ; 

 1893-94 : Mr. A. Olsen, who also has the plant flourishing in 

 his garden. 



Obs. The alliances of this species are with 0. nitida, 

 Hook, f., and 0. i^opidifolia, Col. (Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 

 xvii., p. 243), and 0. stiborbiculata, Col. (I.e., vol. xviii., 

 p. 263), but differing from them all in several characters. Its 

 rose-red pappus gives the flowers a peculiar and pleasing 

 appearance. The indumentum — flat, lanceolate, membranous 

 —is of Bentham's Division I. 



