910 COMPOSITAE, [ Brachycome. 
Var. membranifolia 7’. Kirk l.c. 261.—More slender and less branched, and not 
so glandular. Leaves 1-3 in. long, membranous; petioles longer and more slender. 
Var. polita Cheesem.—Usually glabrous, except the peduncles. Stems very 
slender, simple or sparingly branched, leafy at the base. Leaves 1-3.in., very thin 
and membranous. Heads rather smaller.—B. polita 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 261. 
Soutn IsLtaAnD: South-east Otago, not uncommon in coastal districts from 
Oamaru southwards. Cape Whanbrow, 7’. Kirk/ Petrie! near Green Island, Petrie / 
vicinity of Dunedin, Buchanan! Black Head, A. Wall! Fortrose, Petrie! Stewart 
IsLAND: Open turfy ground near the sea, not uncommon, Thomson! Petrie! 
T. Kirk! Cockayne ! Var. membranifolia: Mount Arthur Plateau, 7'. F. C. ; 
Cobb Valley, F. G. Gibbs? Brunner Range and Mount Murchison, W. Townson / 
Var. polita.. Arthur’s Pass, 7’. Kirk! Cockayne ! Sea-level to 4000 ft. Decem- 
ber—January. ) | ; 
A most variable plant, only separable from B. odorata by the larger size, coarser - 
habit, and larger heads. It has the same strong fragrance. 
4. PACHYSTEGIA Cheesem. 
A robust spreading shrub 2-9 ft. high; branchlets stout, densely. 
tomentose. Leaves large, rigid, coriaceous ; under-surface thickly covered 
with densely intricate woolly hairs. Peduncles long, thick, tomentose, - 
monocephalous. Heads large, heterogamous, radiate ; involucre subglobose, 
narrowed upwards; bracts very numerous, in many series, densely im- 
bricated, lanceolate, acute or the outer obtuse, uppermost with needle-like 
recurved points. Receptacle broad, slightly convex, foveolate. Florets of 
the ray numerous, in 2-3 series; ligules 3-toothed, white. Florets of the 
disc narrow-tubular, 5-toothed, yellow. Achenes slender, grooved, linear, 
densely silky. Pappus-hairs in a single series, equal in length, scabrid, 
slightly thickened at the apex. 
A monctypic genus confined to New Zealand. It is closely allied to the Aus- 
tralian and New Zealand Olearia, in which it was originally placed by Hooker under 
the name of Olearia insignis. But Hooker himself (Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 125) says 
that it is “almost generically distinct from Hurybia (Olearia) in the simple pappus 
of equal hairs, thickened at the tip.” Later on, when figuring the species in the 
Botanical Magazine (t. 7034), he remarks, after drawing attention to the affinity 
of Olearia to the northern genus Aster, “ Of all the many species of Olearia, however, 
none departs so widely from Aster as does the one here figured, which in its great 
ovoid involucre with the bracts in very many series, and its uniseriate pappus of 
perfectly equal hairs, rather clubbed at the tip, departs a good deal from the typical 
Olearias.”” Much study of the genus, both in its wild and cultivated state, has fully 
convinced me that the two characters mentioned above—the great ovoid involucre, 
with its multitudinous bracts, and the uniseriate pappus, with its clubbed equal hairs 
—are together quite sufficient to justify the creation of a new genus. 4 
| Hep. 
__1. P. insignisa Cheesem—A low robust spreading shrub 1-6 ft. high, 
rarely more; branches stout, densely tomentose. Leaves crowded at the 
ends of the branches, 3-7 in. long, 1-4 in. broad, oblong or oblong-ovate or 
narrow-obovate, obtuse, equal or unequal at the base, quite entire, ex- 
cessively thick and coriaceous, glabrous and shining above, under-surface 
thickly clothed with white appressed tomentum, becoming fulvous or red 
when dry, veins evident on both surfaces; petiole 4-2in. long, stout. 
Peduncles 1-5 at the ends of the branches, 4-12 in. long, stout, evenly. 
tomentose, naked or with a few foliaceous bracts immediately below the 
head. Head large, hemispherical, 2-3in. diam.; involucral scales im- 
bricated in many series, tomentose. Ray-florets very numerous; ligules 
narrow, white. Disc-florets yellow. Pappus of one series of equal scabrid 
hairs thickened at the tips. Achenes long and slender, silky.—Olearia 
