326 
FLORA AND SYLVA 
leaves of bright yellowish-green, smooth and 
shining above and covered with grey felt 
underneath and upon the stems. It makes a 
pretty evergreen, freely branched and of fine 
habit without clipping — to which indeed it 
is averse. It is a good sea-side shrub, fairly 
common in the milder parts of Brittany, in 
the south of France, and round Dublin. It 
has reached a height of lo feet with Lord 
Annesley at Castlewellan, but is there found 
somewhat tender. The dusky-white flowers 
appear in November and December and are 
fragrant, but insignificant. Of quick growth 
and easy increase, it is much used in New 
Zealand as a shelter tree. 
O. furfuracea. — A low tree of lo to 15 feet, 
with broad crisped leaves and large loose clus- 
ters of tiny white flowers, too small for effect. 
Syn. O. ferruginea. 
O. Gunniana. — This has been confused with 
O. stellidata and the same plant has long passed 
under both names in gardens, but the true 
Gunniana is quite distinct. It is a low much- 
branched shrub, with small toothed leaves of 
silvery grey colour, less hardy than stellulata, 
and later in flowering. The white Daisy-like 
flowers are smaller, of greater substance, and 
more cupped than in that kind. Possibly not 
now in cultivation. The plant figured in the 
Botanical Magazine as O. Gunniana is undoubt- 
edly O. stellulata. 
O. Haastii. — This is the commonest and 
hardiest of the Olearias, a splendid sea-side 
shrub in the most exposed places and even 
when deluged with salt spray, and almost as 
good in town gardens. Its leaves are Box-like, 
being small and tough, ovate in shape and 
about an inch long, deep green above and 
white on the under side. Towards the end of 
the summer it is completely covered with a pro- 
fusion of small white flowers (not unlike those 
of the Achillea or Millfoil), which last a long 
while in dry weather, and are pleasantly fra- 
grant. So free is it that cuttings a few inches 
high are often covered with flowers. In New 
Zealand the plant occurs as a low shrubby 
tree at elevations of about 4,000 feet, and 
though in this country it does not seem to 
exceed 8 feet in height, plants continue to 
spread almost indefinitely, one specimen in 
the collection of the Earl of Annesley at Castle- 
wellan being well over 50 feet in circumfer- 
ence. It is so hardy that in a warm soil and 
with slight protection it succeeds in many 
parts of northern Britain, and though cut to 
the ground in many places by the severe frosts 
of ten years ago, the plants grew again in 
almost every case. In cold places a light soil 
is to be recommended, and the withered flower- 
heads should be left on all winter as a pro- 
tection to the tender shoots. It makes a good 
hedge plant, and grows well even in the shade 
of trees. It is sometimes recommended as a 
covert plant, but rabbits are too fond of it for 
it to be of any value in this way. Readily 
increased from cuttings of the weaker side- 
\ shoots, taken during summer. 
O. i/icifo/ia. — This has been often confound- 
ed with macrodonta, but has longer, narrower, 
and more deeply toothed leaves, with strange- 
ly crinkled and serrated edges. The entire 
plant also is far less downy, indeed at times 
almost glabrous. The flowers appear as rounded 
clusters during June, and are almost identical 
with those of macrodonta^ with an agreeable 
aromatic fragrance. The plant is widely dis- 
tributed in the mountains of New Zealand, 
and is fairly hardy in this country. 
O. insignis. — This is undoubtedly the finest 
of the race. It is a rare plant in this country 
and up to the end of 1 904 I have only person- 
ally known four plants in the open, but in the 
present year two more have been imported 
i fromNewZealand. It is a native of the middle 
j island, where it grows in crevices of dry rocks 
! at an elevation of 5,000 feet. Its leaves, which 
I are leathery and of great consistence, are from 
4 to 6 inches in length and about 3 inches 
across. The young leaves are clothed with 
pale fawn-coloured or whitish tomentum on 
both sides, this eventually disappearing from 
the upper surface which becomes green, but 
remaining on the reverse. The stout branches 
and peduncles are covered with the same felt. 
The flowers, which are borne on erect axil- 
lary or terminal peduncles of 6 to 9 inches, 
have silvery-white ray-florets and a yellow 
disc, and measure 2\ to 3^^ inches across. It 
is a scarce plant in its own country, where it 
is said to attain a height of about 3 feet. The 
finest example known to me in this country 
is that growing in Mr. W. E. Gumbleton's 
