PLATE 100.—HAASTIA SINCLAIRII. 
Famity COMPOSIT/. | [Genus HAASTIA, Hook. Fr. 
Haastia Sinclairii, Hook. }. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 156; Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. 321. 
The genus Haastia, which contains three or four species, all confined to 
New Zealand, was named by Sir J. D. Hooker to commemorate the services of 
Sir Julius von Haast, who was one of the first explorers of the Southern Alps, and 
who for many years displayed much ardour and enthusiasm in the elucidation 
of the alpine flora of the Dominion. The most prominent species of the genus 
is undoubtedly the very remarkable H. pulvinaris, one of the plants to which 
the name “ vegetable sheep” has been given, and which forms huge greyish-green 
cushions several feet in diameter, the compacted branches and leaves being 
everywhere clothed with dense woolly hairs. When these rounded cushions are 
scattered over the rocky slopes of some mountain-summit, their appearance, seen 
from a little distance, amply justifies the local name that has been applied to 
the plant. 
The species selected for illustration in this plate is the very different 
H. Sinclairw, which is a true “shingle-slip”’ plant, never found away from the 
slopes of dry shingle which form such a prominent feature on the eastern side 
of the Southern Alps. It has numerous rather remotely placed long and 
slender branches which are usually buried to their summits in the shingle, so 
that all that can be seen of the plant is the short leafy tips of the branches, 
looking like separate plants, and bearing a single large terminal flower-head. 
The plant has the usual greenish-grey colour of most shingle-plants, and even 
at a comparatively small distance is not at all easy to distinguish from the 
shingle. 
Haastia Sinclairii was originally discovered by Dr. Sinclair on shingle-slopes 
at the Wairau Gorge, and a little later in the Awatere Valley. But it was soon 
found to have a wide distribution on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, 
and is now known to extend from the northern portions of the Mount Arthur 
Range southwards through the Canterbury Alps to the south-west of Otago; im 
fact, it has the most extensive range of any species of the genus. I am _ not 
aware, however, that it occurs in any locality well on the western side of the 
watershed of the Alps. Its altitudinal range is from 4,000 ft. to 6,500 ft., but 
it is most abundant at a height of about 5,000 ft. Its nearest ally is doubtless 
H. recurva. But that species is much larger, and is much more copiously 
branched, with more leafy branches. The leaves are sharply recurved, whereas 
they are usually flat in H. Sinclairii, and the indumentum of the plant is 
much more rufous. Finally, the flower-heads are smaller than in H. Sinelairii, 
and the pappus-hairs are connate at the base. 
Prare 100. Haastia Sinclairii, drawn from specimens collected on Mount Peel, Nelson, at an 
altitude of 5,000 ft. Fig. 1, bract from the involucre (x 3); 2, outer floret (x 3); 3, the same with 
the pappus removed (x 6); 4, inner floret (x 3); 5, pappus-hair (enlarged) ; 6, portion of the same 
(still more enlarged) ; 7, anthers (x 6); 8, style-arms (x 6). 
