= 
OLEARIA ANGUSTIFOLIA, Hook. f. 
THE TETE-A-WEKA, 
OrpbER—COMPOSIT-®. 
a 
(Plate CXXXVITII.) 
,} 
” . | ee 
, Tuis rare and little-known species is one of the most beautiful flowering plants 
. yet discovered, and is attractive alike from the remarkable character of the 
} foliage, the beauty of the flowers, and the delicate perfume it exhales. Looking 
7 down from some sea-cliff on Stewart Island, the visitor may sce below a compact 
7 dome-shaped head, 30ft. in diameter: the narrow rigid leaves, of the deepest 
green above, are seen to be white beneath as the branches are agitated by the 
j breeze: carried on the tips of the branches are clusters of from four to ten 
large flower-heads, each about 2in. in diameter, with a rich deep-purple disc, 
7 surrounded by snow-white rays, the separate clusters resembling large bouquets 
set in deep green, and producing one of the richest effects imaginable. In a 
J genus which contains many species of great beauty Olearia angustifolia stands 
" unrivalled. 
It was originally discovered by Dr. Lyall, Surgeon on board H.M.S. 
“Acheron,” who collected specimens long past flowering in 1848: the flowers 
were first collected by the writer in 1884, and are now fully described for the 
first time. The plant is extremely rare and local, often growing in situations 
where it is washed by the sea-spray. For the Native name, tete-a-weka, | am 
indebted to Mr. Charles Traill, of Stewart Island. 
Olearia angustifolia forms a shrub or small tree, 6ft. to 2oft. high, the trunk 
being clothed with light-brown fibrous bark, which is deeply furrowed: the 
branches are stout, and the branchlets are as thick as the little finger, clothed 
with snow-white wool, as are the under-surfaces of the leaves. The leaves are 
alternate, from 3in. to 3in. long and from fin. to in. broad, sessile, but 
narrowed towards the base, and tapering to a long point at the apex; they are 
excessively thick and rigid, and the margins are divided into small rounded 
teeth. Three parallel veins are obvious on both surfaces, 
The flower-heads are produced in clusters of from three to ten at the tips of 
the branches, and are carried singly on stout leafy stalks, the bracts or leaves of 
which closely resemble the stem-leaves, but are only from 4in. to tin. long. The 
flower-heads are from tin. to 2in. in diameter; the involucral leaves are very 
numerous, narrow, arranged in a single series, and clothed with woolly hairs at 
their tips. The florets are very numerous, the outer series being female, with a 
long strap-shaped corolla: the disc-florets are of a deep purple, perfect, with a 
short tubular corolla, bell-shaped at the mouth, which is divided into five short 
lobes. ‘The fruit is silky, crowned with a reddish-brown pappus. 
| The Chatham Islands plant, which Mr. Buchanan considers a variety of 
 O. angustifolia, is, 1 think, a distinct species, more closely allied to O. semidentata 
| than to O. angustifolia. 
