‘Olearia. | COMPOSITA. 285 
Differs from O furfwracea in the much smaller size, smaller close-set 
excessively rigid and coriaceous leaves, and especially in the much larger heads 
with twice the number of florets. I have a plant from Castle Hill, Coromandel, 
which resembles it in foliage, but forms a large shrub 12 ft. high. A similar 
form has been gathered by Petrie at Mercury Bay. But both of these have 
few-flowered heads only slightly larger than those of the typical state of O. 
furfwracea, and are best placed under that species. 
13. O. nitida, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 125.—A much-branched 
shrub 3-12 ft. high, rarely more; branches stout or slender, often 
angular. Leaves alternate, variable in size, 14—34in. long, broadly 
ovate or elliptic-ovate, acute or acuminate, rounded and often 
unequal at the base, coriaceous or almost membranous, clothed 
with appressed white and satiny tomentum beneath; margins 
distinctly or obscurely sinuate-dentate, rarely entire; petiole 
4-lin. long. Corymbs large, rounded, much-branched, very effuse ; 
branches slender, silky-pubescent. Heads numerous, 4—}in. long, 
-obconic; scales of the involucre laxly imbricating; the outer ovate, 
pubescent or villous; the inner linear, fimbriate or sparingly silky. 
Florets 15-20; ray-florets 7-10, with a short broad ray. Pappus- 
hairs unequal, dirty-white or reddish. Achenes short, broad, silky. 
—Kirk, Students’ Fl. 268. O. populifolia, Col. im Trans. N.Z. 
Inst. xvii. (1885) 248. O. suborbiculata, Col. l.c. xviii. (1886) 
263. O. erythropappa, Col. l.c. xxii. (1890) 468. O. multiflora, Col. 
xxvii. (1895) 387. Hurybia nitida, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 117. 
EK. alpina, Lindl. and Paxton, Flow. Gard. ii. 84. Solidago ar- 
borescens, Forst. Prodr. n. 298; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 252. 
Steiractis arborescens, D.C. Prodr. v. 345. Shawia arborescens, 
Raoul, Choix, 45. 
Var. cordatifolia, Kirk, Students’ Fl. 268.—Leaves orbicular, cordate at 
‘the base, very coriaceous. Heads broadly obconic; involucral scales densely 
woolly, inner villous at the tips. Florets about 20; those of the ray with long 
-and narrow ligules. 
Var. angustifolia, Cheesem.—Leaves 2-34in. long, linear-lanceolate to 
lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, almost membranous, margins sinuate. Corymbs 
lax, much-branched. Heads large, tin. long; rays long and narrow. 
Var. capillaris, Kirk, /.c.—Small, stout or slender, densely or sparingly 
branched. Leaves small, +-1in. long, ovate or rounded, membranous or sub- 
coriaceous, silky above when young. Heads 3-12, in sparingly branched corymbs 
longer than the leaves; pedicels very slender; involucral scales glabrate or 
‘slightly villous. Florets 8-12.—O. capillaris, Buch. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. iii. 
1871) 212. 
NortH AND SourH Isuanps, Stewart Istanp: Not uncommon from the 
Hast Cape and Taupo southwards. Sea-level to 4000 ft. November—Janu- 
ary. Var. cordatifolia: Stewart Island, Kirk! Var. angustifolia: Ohine- 
muri Gorge, Thames Valley, 7. #. C., Petrie! Var. capillaris : Mount Egmont, 
Adams and J. H.C.; Nelson mountains, H. H. Travers! Dall! source of the 
Poulter River (Canterbury), Cockayne ! 
Perhaps the most variable species of the genus, but generally to be recog- 
nised in all its forms by the thin white and peculiarly satiny tomentum on the 
under-surface of the leaves. 
