21 



(14.) The Species of Olearia. 



Those already described as low trees will generally remain 

 as shrubs in gardens, especially in a dry climate. Other 

 species of similar habit, but purely shrubby, are 0, moschata, 

 with small obovate-oblong leaves more or less white on both 

 surfaces ; 0. Haastii, somewhat similar, but with larger leaves , 

 0. oleifolia, like a small-leaved form of 0. avicenniae folia ; 

 0. nummulari folia, with extremely thick, small roundish leaves ; 

 and 0. cymbifolia, similar to the last-named, but the margins 

 of the leaf so much recurved as to make it boat-shaped. All 

 the above are quite hardy, easily grown, and strike readily 

 from cuttings. 



0. insignis differs so much from the other species that it 

 should form the type of a new genus. It is a low-growing shrub 

 with long spreading branches, which at their extremities bear, 

 in rosettes, the beautiful leathery oblong leaves, each 1-4 in. 

 long, glossy-green above, but beneath thickly covered with 

 a close mat of white hairs. The young branches, too, are 

 similarly clad. The flower-head, raised on white stalks 4-8 in. 

 long, is hemispherical, 2-3 in. in diameter, and surrounded by 

 many involucral scales which are white from their mat of 

 hairs. The outer florets are white and the inner yellow. 

 Since the species is confined in its natural habitats to dry 

 rocks it will grow in exceedingly arid soil. It is quite hardy. 

 No New Zealand plant more deserves cultivation. 



There are several remarkable species with stiff lanceolate 

 toothed leaves, covered beneath with a soft mat of white 

 hairs, the ultimate branches being similarly adorned. They 

 have all large, usually solitary, flower-heads, which in some of 

 the species have the florets altogether or in part purple. The 

 delightful 0. semidentata has been already referred to. Other 

 species are 0. chathamica, 0. operina, 0. angustifolia* and 

 0. Traillii. 0. Colensoi and 0. Lyallii may be here included, 

 but their leaves are much broader, those of 0. Lyallii being 

 extremely large, and their flower-heads far less showy. 0. 

 Lyallii is a tree rather than a shrub. 



These large-headed olearias require a moist, equable climate 

 with low summer temperature, and are not suited to ordinary 

 garden conditions. 



* Eventually a low, round-headed tree. 



