106 OLEARIA ONONIS 



O. MYRSINOIDES, Mueller. 



(Gardeners' Chronicle, 1909, i., fig. 92.) 



An evergreen shrub, 3 or 4 ft. high, its rigid branches covered with pale 

 brownish down. Leaves alternate, scarcely stalked, hard, stiff and leathery, 

 narrowly oval ; \ to \\ ins. long, J to in. wide ; dark glossy green and 

 smooth above, covered beneath with a pale, tawny felt ; margins wavy and 

 toothed. Flower-heads I in. across, produced in May and June singly on 

 slender downy stalks i to 2 ins. long ; they come from the leaf-axils on short 

 branches which spring from the growths of the previous year, the whole 

 forming an elegant, densely flowered, cylindrical panicle sometimes 12 to 18 ins. 

 long. Ray florets about five, strap-shaped, pure white ; disk florets yellow. 



Native of Tasmania ; cultivated at Kew more than sixty years ago, but still 

 not common. It thrives very well on a south wall, and healthy plants flower 

 with remarkable profusion. In mild districts it will succeed in the open 

 ground. 



O. ODORATA, Petrie. 



A shrub of thin, sparse habit, with slender, wiry, terete, little-branched 

 stems ; leaves opposite, linear or spathulate, | to i^ ins. long, J to in. wide 

 near the rounded apex ; bright green and smooth above, silvery beneath with 

 appressed, glistening, white hairs ; tapering at the base to a short stalk. 

 Flower-heads J in. across, borne on short, arrested, bud-like branches, which 

 usually also carry a pair of leaves ; they are scented and dull greyish brown ; 

 the bracts of the involucre brown, and viscous-glandular. 



Native of New Zealand, where it is very common in the lake district of 

 Otago. It is a curious, not particularly ornamental, shrub introduced a few 

 years ago, and put in commerce as " O. virgata." The true virgata has four- 

 angled instead of cylindrical stems. 



O. GUNNIANA, Hooker fit. 



(Bot. Mag., t. 4638 ; O. stellulata, Bentham (in part). 



An evergreen shrub, 5 to 10 ft. high, naturally much branched ; young 

 shoots covered with a close white felt. Leaves alternate, oblong or narrowly 

 obovate, \ to i\ ins. long, about one-fourth as wide, roundish at the apex, tapering 

 towards the base, the margins sinuously or very shallowly toothed, dark dull 

 green above, white, and closely felted beneath ; very shortly stalked. Flower- 

 heads pure white with a yellow disk, i to ij ins. across, produced during 

 summer in erect, loose, slender-stalked corymbs. Ray florets ten to sixteen. 



Native of Tasmania ; introduced to Kew about 1848. It is the least hardy 

 of the Olearias here described, and can only be grown out-of-doors per- 

 manently in the mildest districts. It is a handsome plant when grown outside 

 in pots during the summer, and housed through the winter. Grown in this 

 way it comes into flower in March and April. This species was by Bentham 

 united with O. STELLULATA, De Candolle. The true plant of that name is very 

 distinct and has leaves up to 4 ins. long. Probably not in cultivation. 



ONONIS. LEGUMINOS^E. 



Of this genus to which belongs the common "rest-harrow" (O. 

 arvensis) of our waysides and fields only two or three species can be 



