Celmisia.| COMPOSIT A. 297 
ligule spreading, flat or revolute, often long, always white. Disc- 
florets numerous, hermaphrodite, tubular, 5-lobed. Anthers usually 
sagittate at the base, with short tails. Style-branches flattened, 
tipped with long or short appendages. Achenes linear, slightly 
compressed or angled, with 1-3 prominent ribs on each side. 
Pappus copious, of numerous unequal scabrid bristles. 
The genus Celmisia, which is confined to New Zealand, with the exception 
of one species found in Australia and Tasmania, forms one of the chief ornaments 
of the montane and alpine flora of the colony, the various species usually 
composing a large proportion of the vegetation, especially in the South Island, 
where the mountain slopes and valleys are often whitened for miles from the 
abundance of their large daisy-like flowers. With few exceptions, the species 
are exceedingly variable and difficult of discrimination. This is especially 
the case with C. longifolia, coriacea, discolor, petiolata, and spectabilis, all of 
which run into forms which are easily distinguishable by the eye, and which 
to some extent may be permanent, but which it is almost impossible to define in 
precise language, and which in most cases are connected by numerous intermedi- 
ates. As the flower-heads are very similar throughout the genus, except in size, 
the specific characters are almost wholly founded on the vegetative organs. The 
size, shape, and texture of the leaves, the nature of the tomentum clothing the 
under-surface, the differences in the leaf-sheaths, the length, stoutness, and 
indumentum of the scapes, and the peculiarities of the involucral bracts are all 
made use of. Of course, these are essentially variable characters, and can only 
be safely employed in combination. But in Celmisia, as in other large genera 
of the New Zealand flora, the species, such as they are, must be regarded as 
founded on an aggregation of several small prevalent characters rather than on 
conspicuous and important differences. 
A. Suffruticose. Stems woody, branched ; branches elongated. Leaves imbri- 
cated along the branches. 
Stems 1-4 ft., procumbent or suberect. Leaves spreading, 
1-14 in., linear, acute; margins flat 1. C. Walkeri. 
Stems 1-3 ft., prostrate. Leaves }-1in., linear- ‘spathulate, 
obtuse ; margins revolute 2. C. rupestris. 
Stems 6-12 in., slender, sparingly branched. Leaves 
laxly imbricating, spreading or reflexed, 4-3? in., lanceo- 
late, sparsely clothed with lepidote scales beneath .. 3. C. Gibbsit. 
Stems 2-8in., sparingly branched. Leaves erect, }-4in. 
long, linear-oblong, white and cottony beneath .. 4. C. ramulosa. 
Stems 3-12in., much-branched. Leaves }-4in., linear- 
subulate, green on both surfaces, glabrous or glandular 5. C. lateralis. 
B. Herbaceous, sometimes woody at the base. Branches short. Leaves 
crowded, usually more or less rosulate. Disc-florets yellow, never purple. 
* Leaves more or less toothed or serrate, clothed with white or buff 
tomentum beneath (glabrate in C. prorepens). 
Leaves 6-12in. x 14-24in., lanceolate, acutely serrate, 
white beneath. Scape 1-2 ft., with linear bracts .. 6. C. holosericea. 
Leaves 4-8in. x 1-2in., obovate- lanceolate, acutely ser- 
rate, buff beneath. Scape 6-18 in., with broad leafy 
bracts bys 7. C. Dallui. 
Leaves 1-5in. x 4-1i in. , obovate- oblong to linear- oblong, 
serrulate, buff beneath. Scape 2-10 in., with linear 
bracts Au . 8. C. hieracifolia. ° 
Leaves 14-3 in. x 4- -lin., . linear. oblong to linear- obovate, 
green on both surfaces, rugose above be .. 9. C. prorepens. 
