NOTES ON SOME COMPOSITE OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND. 255 
on the young leaves, and leaf and flower-shoots. It varies somewhat 
in the fineness of the hairs of which it consists, and in their number 
and closeness of aggregation and appression. On the under side of the 
leaf the hairs are so fine, short, and closely appressed, that they pro- 
duce a very delicate, uniform felt, of such tenuity as to admit of all 
the minute reticulations of the leaf being distinctly seen through it; 
the leaf-surface really appearing to the naked eye to be glabrous. 
Here a silvery or shining surface is produced; on the other hand, on 
young leaves and on the flower-pedicels, the tomentum becomes chaffy 
and brown. Leaf generally broadly ovate, tapering to a point, 24-3 in. 
long, 14-14 in. broad; dries blackish above, a colour which contrasts 
strongly with the whiteness of the tomentum of its under surface ; 
leaf-surface generally irregularly wavy, seldom flat; margin never 
toothed, sometimes entire, generally irregularly sinuate or notched ; 
sometimes thickened; very coriaceous; sometimes on at base; 
veins and reticulations conspicuous below; petiole about 4 in. long. 
Inflorescence, a panicle rather than a rak, 3—4 in. across, much 
branched or the reverse; branches loose, or close, or spreading; pa- 
nicle-form most distinct when flowers are few ; pedicels slender, terete, 
stouter and longer when panicle few-flowered, 1—3 in. long, more 
villose in the " forms. Head resembles that of a Solidago or 
upatoria, variable in size, generally under } in. Jong. Involucral scales 
vary in size, texture, and villosity of outer surface and margin ; scarcely 
rigid ; oblong, lanceolate, obtuse; outer submembranous, as pilose as 
the flower-pedice ; Inner su rous submembranous (more so than 
outer) ; margins of greater tenuity than centre—with the tips only, or 
chiefly, or the whole margins, ciliate-lacerate. Pappus generally reddish 
or orange, at least in herbarium specimens. 
I have no authentic specimens of the North Island species O. fur- 
furacea, Hook. f.; but from the description in the * Handbook,’ I 
doubt whether it and nitida are properly separated. My plant, assigned 
by Dr. Hooker to nitida, seems to be a passage form, approaching 
M characters of furfuracea. 
. O. avicenniefolia, Hook. f. (Eurybia, Fl. N. Z.). Stoneyhill 
hs: top of the “ Big rock," Saddlehill; October, young, W. L. L 
The * Ake-ake" of the Otago Maori (Hector) a term also applied 
to O. nitida (q.v.). A large, handsome shrub, with somewhat the 
habit of our Eupatorium cannabinum, L. As ornamental as the pre- 
