PLATE 589. 



HELICHRTSUM OALOCEPHALTTM, Schltr. (Engl. Bot. Jahr. Vol. 12, p. 1, 1907.) 



Nat. Order, COMPOSITE. 



A dwarf herbaceous perenial with large and handsome flower heads which 

 vary in colour from pure white to deep red. Rootstock woody, basal leaves 

 oblanceolate-ligulate, acute at apex, giadually tapering to base, 2 to 4 inches 

 long, 5 to 9 lines wide above the middle, clothed with white silky hairs on both 

 surfaces. Flowering stems terete, 1 -headed, densely white woolly, 7 to 10 inches 

 high ; stem leaves few, distant, oblanceolate-spathulate, sheathing. Heads solitary, 

 large. Involucral scales in many rows, radiating, lanceolate, acute, glabrous and 

 shining, much longer than the disk. Florets very numerous, reaching to about 

 2 lines long. Corolla glabrous, tubular cylindrical, 5-fid, the lobes triangular, 

 obtuse, short. Stamens equalling the corolla, anthers linear, obtuse ; pollen 

 spherical with 3 stopples. Style filiform, glabrous, its branches subulate, truncate 

 at apex. Pappus bristles subplumose, a little longer than the corolla. Achenes 

 ellipsoid, glandular, glands sessile. 



Habitat.- NATAL. Fairfield, Alexandra County, 2,200 ft. alt. October, 

 Rudatis 137 (1905); Liddesdale, near Howick, 4,000 to 5,000 ft. alt , December 

 (1889), Wood 4251 ; Hilton Road, 3,000 to 4,000 ft. alt., October, Miss Ritchie (in 

 Herb. Wood 9937); Zwaartkop, 4,000 to 5,000 ft alt., November 1906, Wylie (in 

 Herb. Wood 10,142); Benvie, Umvoti, 4,000 to 5,000 ft. alt., September 1906, 

 Wylie (in Govt. Herb. 10,801) ; also Haur 547, teste Kew. 



This plant belongs to the Section Elegantissima, and comes very near to the 

 Cape 77. marginatum D.C., of which we have only one rather poor specimen 

 collected by the late Dr. Bolus many years ago ; from the description in the Fl. 

 Capensis of this plant H. calocephala would seem only to differ ^by its more silky 

 and larger leaves, larger flower heads, and differently coloured involucral scales. 

 It is a very handsome plant and is well worth cultivation. 



Fig. 1, female floret; 2, perfect floret ; 3, pappus bristle ; 4, three stamens; 

 5, pollen grain; 6, style and stigma; all enlarged. 



