Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/367

Gnaphalium.. 10. G. collinum, Lab. Pl. Nov. Holl. ii. 44, t. 189.—A tufted perennial herb 3–12 in. high, usually with creeping and rooting stolons and slender erect cottony stems. Leaves mostly radical, very variable in size, ⅓–3 in. long, lanceolate-spathulate or oblong-spathulate, acute or obtuse, petiolate, white and cottony on both surfaces or glabrate above; cauline leaves much smaller and narrower, linear-spathulate, sessile. Heads small, compacted into dense clusters or compound heads similar to those of G. japonicum, but smaller and not so compact, and with fewer smaller subtending floral leaves. Involucres broader than in G. japonicum; bracts linear-oblong, obtuse, scarious and hyaline. Florets and achenes as in G. japonicum.—''Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 139; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 155; Benth. Fl. Austral.'' ii. 654; Kirk, Students' Fl. 300. G. simplex, ''A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 237; A. Cunn. Precur.'' n. 451.

Perennial herbs, usually of small size, either densely tufted and compacted or creeping and matted. Leaves small, alternate, entire, often closely imbricated. Heads small, solitary, terminal, sessile or nearly so, heterogamous and discoid. Involucre oblong, campanulate or hemispherical; bracts imbricated in 2–3 series, the inner ones often with white radiating tips. Receptacle narrow, flat or convex, naked. Florets of the circumference in 1 or 2 rows, female, filiform, 2–3-toothed. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, tubular with a funnel-shaped 5-toothed mouth. Anthers sagittate at the base, produced into fine tails. Style-branches nearly terete, truncate or subcapitate. Achenes oblong. Pappus-hairs in one or several series, slender or thickened at the tip.

A genus founded more upon habit than upon really good and distinctive characters. It may be said to be intermediate between the Eugnaphalieæ and Helichryseæ, the female and disc florets being often nearly equal in number. It is easily divided into two sections by the remarkable differences between the pappus-hairs, which may ultimately, when the Gnaphalioid Compositæ are thoroughly worked out, be found sufficient to constitute separate genera. Several of the species are difficult of discrimination, and require further examination,