PLATE 524. 



HELICHRYSUM COOPBEI, HAEV. (Fl. Cap. Vol. Ill, p. 231.) 

 Natural Order, COMPOSITE. 



An erect undershrub 4 to 5 feet high, bearing numerous yellow flowers. 

 Stems leafy to summit, densely clothed with white cobweb-like hairs ; branched 

 near apex. Leaves alternate, sessile, exstipulate, lower ones decurrent on 

 the stem for 1-2 inches, uppermost ones stem-clasping, but not decurrent, 

 gradually decreasing in size from the base upwards, 3 to 4 inches long, 1 to ! 

 inch wide, oblong, entire, tapering to both ends, cob-webby and glandular beneath, 

 pubescent above, margins woolly-ciliate, veins and veinlets prominent beneath. 

 Heads solitary, terminal on the branches, very many flowered, discoid ; involucre 

 in many series, the scales oblong-acute, inner ones erect or suberect, lower ones 

 spreading, all bright yellow. Receptacle flat, pitted. Florets of disk perfect, 

 marginal ones few, female, filiform, pappus of few white bristles. Achenes 

 cylindrical, obtuse at both ends, dark coloured. 



Habitat: NATAL: Inanda 1800 feet alt., May, Wood 560; near Durban 150 

 feet alt., April, Wood 11088. Also in Orange River Colony, Cooper 1117. 



The large genus Helichrysum contains from 250 to 300 species, of which 1 37 

 are described in the Flora Capensis as South African ; since the publication of 

 that work in 1865 many more species have been described in different publica- 

 tions. In Natal according to Wood's Revised List there are 78, and in the 

 Supplement to that List 13 more are enumerated, making 91 in all as natives of 

 Natal, and it is almost certain that there are others which have not come to our 

 knowledge. Two species have already been figured in this work, H. Kraussii, 

 Sch Bip. in Yol. Ill, pi. 269, and H. teretifolium, Less in Vol. IV, pi. 327, the 

 species here figured being very different in appearance from either. H. Cooperi 

 is very common in coast districts in the late summer, and according to the Flora 

 Capensis it is " a very fine species worthy of cultivation." 



Fig. 1, female floret; 2, perfect floret; 3, three stamens; 4, style, all 

 enlarged. 



