PLATE 85.—-OLEARIA INSIGNIS. 
Famity COMPOSIT. ] [Genus OLEARIA, Mancu 
Olearia insignis, Hook. /. Fl. Nov. Zel. 11, 331; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 279 
New Zealand contains many handsome and remarkable shrubby Composites, 
but it may be doubted if any one of them is more deserving of notice than 
the subject of this plate. Its peculiar habit, the excessively thick and 
coriaceous leaves with their shining upper surface and dense coating of white 
tomentum beneath, the tall stout peduncles, each with its single bold head, 
and the large broad involucres with their many rows of scales, are prominent 
and noteworthy characters ; while the general appearance of the plant is singularly 
attractive. 
Olearia insignis was originally discovered by Sir David Monro in 1853 in 
rocky places on the banks of the Waihopai River, the principal tributary of 
the Wairau; and was shortly afterwards gathered in the Awatere Valley by 
Dr. Sinclair. Since then it has been found to be fairly plentiful in the eastern 
portion of the Marlborough Provincial District, from a little to the south of 
Blenheim to the Conway and Mason Rivers. It is essentially a plant of rocky 
cliffs and ledges, or of the debris which has fallen from them, and appears 
to be partial to calcareous soils. It has a wide range of altitude, and has been 
found from sea-level to 4,000 ft. 
Few New Zealand plants are more easy of cultivation than O. insignis. It 
does well in any ordinary garden soil, and requires no special treatment whatever. 
A plant cultivated in my own garden flowered profusely each summer for a long 
succession of years, often producing during a single season more than a hundred 
large flower-heads from 2in. to 3in. in diameter, each flower-head lasting for 
several days. It was treated as an ordinary lawn-plant, and always attracted 
much attention. 
As a species O. insignis is exceedingly distinct. Technically, it falls into 
the section Hriotriche, in which the hairs constituting the indumentum of the 
plant are neither stellate nor fixed by the middle, but form an intricate mass of 
dense wool. But neither in habit nor appearance does it agree with the other 
species constituting the section, most of which have small leaves and small 
flower-heads, while none has the broad involucres with many rows of bracts 
and the uniseriate pappus of perfectly equal hairs possessed by O. insignis. 
PLATE 85. Olearia insignis, drawn from specimens collected in the Awatere Valley, Marlborough, 
by Mr. H. J. Matthews. Fig. 1, ray-floret (x 3); 2, disc-floret (x 3) ; 3, outer pappus-hair (enlarged) ; 
4, inner pappus-hair (enlarged) ; 5, anthers (x 8); 6, style-arms (x8); 7, young plant in flower, 
reduced from a photograph. 
