258 Composites He lie /try sum. 



The involucral bracts are scarious, but not silvery or semi-trans- 

 parent, and the angular achenes are not beaked, and the pappus 

 is rough or pilose. Taken in its widest sense the genus com- 

 prehends nearly 300 species, mostly of an ornamental character ; 

 but we must confine ourselves to the two or three species in 

 general cultivation. The name is from rjXtoy, the sun, and 

 ^ucros-, gold, in allusion to the flower-heads. 



1. H. bracteatum (fig. 144). This is the large-flowered 

 species, of which there are white, yellow, pink, crimson, and 

 other varieties in cultivation. H. acuminatum, maorocepha- 

 lum and chrysdnthum are considered as simple forms of this 

 species. Australia. 



2. H. apiculatum, syn. Chrysocephalum helichrysoldes, 

 Gnaphalium flavissimum, etc. This is of rather dwarfer 

 stature than the foregoing and covered with a silvery tomen- 

 tum. But the great distinction lies in the small clustered 

 yellow heads. Australia. 



//. Stcbchas is a South European shrubby species, and H. 

 petiolatum, syn. Gnaphalium lariatum, is the trailing species 

 with woolly leaves commonly used for edging beds. 



32. HELlPTERUM. 



This genus differs from Helichrysum in having a soft 

 feathery pappus. The species are numerous, inhabiting the 

 southern and western parts of Australia and South Africa. H. 

 eximium is a beautiful Cape species with thick woolly leaves 

 and crimson globular flower-heads. H. speciosissimum, from 

 the same country, has white and orange flower-heads. There 

 are three or four annual species, natives of Australia, in culti- 

 vation. 



1. H. incanum, syn. H. brachyrhynchum. A dwarf tufted 

 branching plant covered with a silvery down. Leaves linear, 

 crowded at the base of the stem. Flower-heads large, on leaf- 

 less peduncles. Involucral bracts yellow, pink, or white. 



2. H. Sdnfordii, syn. H. Humboldtii. In this species the 

 flower-heads are small and numerous, in dense clusters, bright 

 yellow changing to a mineral green when dry. 



Lawrencella rosea, sometimes referred to Helichrysum, is an 

 annual about 1 foot high, with linear nearly glabrous leaves and 

 pink or white flower-heads on long peduncles. And Sch&nia 

 oppositifdlia is separated from the neighbouring genera on 



