OLEARIA TRAILLII, 1. Kirk. 
TRAILL’S OLEARIA. 
OrdDER—COMPOSIT A. 
(Plate CXLII.) 
Tuts noble species is one of the most striking plants in the New Zealand flora 
as well as one of the rarest: it was discovered by the writer in December, 1883, 
and described in the ‘‘ Transactions of the New Zealand Institute”? for that 
year. Its large flower-heads, although not rivalling those of Olearia angustifolia 
in size, are very attractive with their violet-coloured centres surrounded with 
short broad rays; but, instead of being solitary, they are arranged in three- to 
eight-flowered erect racemes, which are thickly clustered at the extremities of 
the branches; so that the mode of inflorescence forms a marked contrast to that 
of the tete-a-weka. 
Olearia Trailli is a shrub or small tree from 5ft. to 15ft. high or more, with 
stout branchlets, which are clothed with a coat of woolly hairs. The leaves are 
crowded near the tips of the branches, and are from 4in. to 6in, in length and 
from Tin. to IHin, broad, narrowed below into a short broad leaf-stalk, and acute 
at the apex: they are of thick texture, and white beneath with appressed hairs; 
the margins are cut into small teeth, which are sharp in the young state, but 
ultimately become obtuse. The flower-heads are produced in racemes from 5in. 
to 1oin. long, clothed with large leafy bracts closely resembling the leaves, and 
2in. or more in length, broad, and almost sheathing at the base; the pedicels 
are from Tin. to 3in. long, and, with the axis and the lower surfaces of the bracts, 
white with appressed woolly hairs: the heads are about lin. or more in diameter ; 
the involucral leaves are narrow, acute, and woolly at the tips. The disc-florets 
are of a deep-purple colour, perfect, with a tubular corolla, having a bell-shaped 
mouth; the outer florets are female, with a short broad ray. ‘The fruits are 
silky and faintly grooved, crowned with reddish-brown pappus-hairs, arranged in 
a single series. 
As already pointed out, it differs from Olearia angustifolia in the mode of 
inflorescence as well as in the larger, broader leaves and more distant bracts. 
It is distinguished from O. Colensot and O. Lyall by the rayed flowers and 
narrower leaves. 
The racemes are terminal when first developed, but often become over- 
topped by the young shoots, when the fruiting heads appear to be given off from 
the base of the young shoots. | 
PROPERTIES AND USES, 
The wood appears similar to that of O. angusitfolia, but has not been tested 
at present. 
It is easily cultivated, and forms a grand addition to the shrubbery. 
DISTRIBUTION OF THE GENUS. 
See under O. Traversit, p. 47, ante. 
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