COMPOSITE. 
167 
9. HELICHRYSUM, Yaill. 
Heads heterogamous, the flowers all tubular, purplish, a few outer 
female only, a great many in the centre hermaphrodite. Involucre 
campanulate, of very numerous gradually imbricated persistent dry 
scales. Receptacle flattish, foveolate. Anthers tailed. Style-branches 
terete, purplish, spreading. Achenes very minute, a little compressed ; 
pappus of a single row of firm very caducous ciliated bristles. — Herbs or 
shrubs, with crowded narrow entire alternate leaves, the heads in con- 
gested corymbs. Distrib. Dry districts, principally of the south 
temperate zone. Species 200-300. 
Involucral-scaies broad. Flowers 50 or more in a 
head 1 . H. yucc^efolium. 
Involucral-scaies narrow. Flowers 15-20 in a head. 
Erect, with acute triplinerved leaves 2. H. proteiforme. 
Dwarf, with obtuse leaves with hidden veins .... 3. H. ccespitosum. 
1. H. yuccsefolium, Lam. ; DC. Prod. vi. 173. A much-branched 
erect shrub, 1-2 feet high, with stems and leaves densely clothed with 
brownish- white adpressed cottony-silky tomentum, the branches 
marked closely with scars of old leaves. Leaves crowded, sessile, 
lanceolate, acute, 1-2 in. long, the veins quite hidden beneath the 
tomentum. Heads in dense corymbs 1-3 inches broad at the end 
of the branches. Involucre i inch broad and long, immersed in 
tomentum ; the scales in several rows, nearly white, the outer oblong, 
• 5 ^ in. broad. Flowers upwards of 50 in a head. Corolla-tube -jt in. 
long. Pappus of firm white ciliated scales as long as the corolla. 
Gnaphalium yuccsefolium, Lam. Encycl. ii. 742. H. multicaule, DC. 
Prod. loc. cit. Gnaphalium proteoides, Sieb. FI. Maur. Fxsic. ii. 269. 
Mauritius, in exposed places near the summit of the Pouce and other hills. 
Endemic. Immortelle du Pouce. 
2. H. proteiforme, Baker. A shrub, with exactly the same 
general habit as H. yuccafolium. Leaves crowded, oblanceolate, 
sessile, 1J-2 in. long, with the midrib and two long side veins visible 
through the brownish-white tomentum. Heads dense, congested, 
forming corymbose panicles. Involucre £ in. long, the whitish mul- 
tiserial scales ligulate, not more than in. broad, nearly all reflexing 
at the tip. Flowers not more than 15-20 in a head. Corolla-tube 
and pappus i in. long, just like those of the last. Gnaphalium pro- 
teiforme, Lam. ; DC. Prod. vi. 227. 
Mauritius, near the summit of several of the higher mountains. Also Bourbon. 
3. H. caespitosnm, DC. Prod. vi. 173, A shrubby perennial, with 
densely packed ascending and spreading stems, not more than a few 
inches long. Leaves very crowded, oblanceolate, obtuse, spreading, under 
an inch long, the veins quite hidden beneath the whitish-brown tomen- 
tum. Heads in a single dense round cluster at the end of each of the 
branches. Involucre % in. long, the ligulate whitish scales soon re- 
flexing at the tip, -fa in. or less broad. Flowers 15-20 in a head. 
