The Daisy Bushes 



in the Antarctic continent of Australia, New Zealand 

 and Chatham Island are the Daisy Bushes found ; they 

 are purely a product of those regions, and show what 

 the great and varied Composite? family can arrive at if 

 left on an untrammelled line of development. 



To us in Great Britain Olearia Haastii is pre- 

 eminently the Daisy Tree. It was introduced here in 1854 

 by the elder Veitch, of the well-known firm of J. Veitch 

 and Sons, and is a big bushy shrub with crowded, 

 evergreen, oval leaves, small and leathery and covered 

 with white down beneath. It is very hardy, and asks 

 for no trimming and little attention, and will grow well 

 right down by the sea, in town gardens and in shady 

 places. In August it is covered with daisy-like blooms, 

 hence the popular name each bloom consisting of 

 about five white rays with eight to ten little yellow tubular 

 flowers at its centre. It was the profusion of these 

 dainty star-like blooms that led Sir Joseph Hooker to 

 suggest the pretty and appropriate name " Eurybia" 

 Mother of Stars for it, and by this it was at first 

 known. However, the name Eurybia now designates a 

 different genus. The Olearias obtain their name from the 

 fact that the first-known species had leaves with a grey- 

 green colouring similar to that of the olives, botanically 

 known as Olea. The second name of the Daisy Bush 

 Haastii recalls to memory Sir Julius Haast, a well- 

 known scientist who explored the New Zealand Alps 



2OI 



