Page:Manual of the New Zealand Flora.djvu/376

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17. R. bryoides, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. ii. 332.—Forming hard and dense convex patches 2–8 in. diam. Lower portion of the stem hard and woody, roots long and stringy. Branches short, stout, with the leaves $1⁄8$–$1⁄4$ in. diam. Leaves very closely packed, imbricated in several series all round the branch, erecto-patent, $1⁄10$–$1⁄6$ in. long, narrow obovate-spathulate or rhomhoid-spathulate, subacute or obtuse; lower two-thirds glabrous or slightly woolly, upper one-third about triangular, coriaceous, clothed on both surfaces with closely felted silky hairs which do not conceal the shape of the leaf, and with a tuft of cottony wool on each side. Heads $1⁄5$–$1⁄4$ in. diam., sunk among the terminal leaves; involucral bracts in 2–3 series, linear-oblong, scarious, acute, inner with white radiating tips. Florets 8–14, the hermaphrodite ones more numerous than the females. Achene with long silky hairs and a thickened areole at the base. Pappus-hairs few, rigid, thickened at the tips.—''Handb. N.Z. Fl. 150; Kirk, Students' Fl.'' 307.

Herbs or small shrubs, very variable in habit, often woolly or tomentose. Leaves alternate or the lower rarely opposite, quite entire. Heads solitary or corymbose, heterogamous and discoid or homogamous through the suppression of the female florets. Involucre from cylindrical to broadly hemispherical; bracts in several series, with or without white or coloured spreading petal-like scarious tips. Receptacle flat or convex, naked or pitted. Female florets exterior, few, sometimes altogether wanting, filiform, minutely 2–3-tooched. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, numerous, tubular with a funnel-shaped 5-toothed mouth. Anthers sagittate at the base, produced into fine tails. Style-branches of the disc-florets almost terete, truncate or subcapitate. Achenes small, terete, 5-angled or compressed. Pappus-hairs in one series (rarely in several series), free or connate below, simple or barbellate or plumose above.