Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/372

332 Mr. Petrie's specimens and my own agree with Mr. Buchanan's figure, and exactly match a specimen which he gave me from Mount Alta, the original locality. In Mr. Kirk's herbarium it is placed under Helichrysum Youngii; but that species differs widely in the larger leaves clothed with softer tomentum, much larger heads with very much longer acute inner involucral bracts, and in the more numerous florets.

8. R. subulata, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 149.—A small densely tufted species forming moss-like patches 1–3 in. diam., perfectly glabrous in all its parts; branches ⅓–1 in. high. Leaves very closely imbricated, suberect or patent, $1⁄8$–$1⁄4$ in. long, subulate, acuminate, 1-nerved. Heads $1⁄6$ in. diam.; involucral bracts in 2–3 series, linear-oblong, scarious, acute, not white nor radiating. Receptacle convex, hispid. Florets 18–25, the females usually rather fewer in number than the hermaphrodite ones. Achene silky. Pappus-hairs somewhat rigid, thickened at the tips.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 304.

9. R. eximia, ''Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl.'' 149.—Forming large rounded or amorphous densely compacted masses from 2–3 in. to several feet long, and sometimes over 2 ft. high. Root stout, woody; branches short, with the leaves ¼ in. diam. Leaves most densely packed, imbricated all round the branch in many series, $1⁄8$–$1⁄5$ in. long, linear-obovate or linear-cuneate, rounded at the tip, membranous, bearing on both surfaces towards the tip a dense tuft of straight white hairs which project beyond the leaf and entirely conceal it. On the back of the leaf the hairs often extend half-way down the leaf or more, but on the upper surface the lower two-thirds is usually quite glabrous. Heads numerous, small, sunk among the leaves at the tips of the branches; involucral bracts in 2 series, narrow-linear, scarious, wiih a tuft of hairs above the middle, not white at the tips. Florets 8–12 or more, the hermaphrodite ones more numerous than the female. Achene clothed with long silky hairs, and with a thickened areole at the base. Pappus-hairs few, rigid, thickened at the tip.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 304.

Nelson—Mount Peel, T.F.C. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse, ''Haast, Kirk! Enys! Petrie! Cockayne! T.F.C.; Mount Dobson, Haast, T.F.C; Mount Cook district, T.F.C. Otago—Lake district, Buchanan! Mount Ida Range, Petrie!'' 4000–6000 ft. December–January.

A most remarkable plant. It is probably not uncommon in alpine situations all along the eastern side of the Southern Alps from Nelson to Otago, but I have only quoted those localities from whence I have seen flowering specimens. In a barren state it is very easy to confound it with R. mammillaris.}}