428 ERIOCAULACE.^. 



r Leaves flat, weak : heads grey .... E. collinum. 



d - Leaves firm, narrow, channelled above : heads white . . 



( E. christopheri. 



r Involucre black E. geoffreyi. 



(Involucre white E. oliveri. 



Eriocaulon robustum Steiid. ; F.B.L vi 572, 1 4 ; White- 

 tailed Hatpin-flower, Chrysanthemum scented. 



Rootstock stout, as thick as the finger or thicker, 

 sometimes creeping, densely clothed below with the dead 

 leaves. Leaves usually 3 or 4 inches long (l to 9), and 

 narrowed gradually from a clasping base, I inch broad, 

 to the obtuse end, lanceolate or oblanceolate, quite gla- 

 brous, finely striate with only very small and close cross 

 nerves, firmly erect or spreading, in section boat-shaped 

 without keel, of a fresh light green or bluish colour- 

 Flower stems solitary, about a foot high (8 inches to 3 

 feet), finely ribbed and twisted ; sheath rather longer 

 than the leaves, expanded ^ inch below the mouth, 

 which may be split down one side ^ inch or more. 

 Heads J^ to M inch broad, and not quite so high ; usually 

 broadest near the top with sloping sides and so narrower 

 at the bottom ; covered when the flowers are out with the 

 long white, downward directed, petals of the male flowers ; 

 except, often, in a band above the base, so that the head 

 has a waist and approaches the form of a very flat 

 hourglass; very slightly scented like Chrysanthemum. 

 Involucral bracts many-seriate, ovate, acute, glabrous or 

 with a very few short hairs, scarious, olive-black in 

 colour. Receptacle villous, more or less hollowed at the 

 top. Floral bracts, obovate-lanceolate-deltoid, fringed 

 at the top with white hairs. Male flowers: — Sepals 

 connected only at the base, much the same in shape as 

 the floral bracts, with white hairs on the back. Petals 

 connected into a distinct tube, oblanceolate, hairy, one 

 much longer than the other two and the bract, and more 



