Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/58

36 C. longifolia (1.). This is the original species, whereon the genus was founded by Cassini; the specimens having been brought home by Gaudichaud from the voyage of Admiral Freycinet, and described in 'Dict. Sc. Nat.' vol. xxxvii. p. 259. DeCandolle considers Cunningham's Blue Mountain species (Arctotis gnaphalodes, Cunn. MS. in Herb. Hook.) as identical with this. Our specimens differ from Gaudichaud]'s figure only by having the leaves much narrower, with their margins revolute and the scapes far less leafy upwards. The ach&aelig;nia are constantly glabrous, the pappus pale reddish, and the papillose part of the arms of the style is as long as the linear and glabrous portion. Of the C. spathulata (2.), A. C. MSS., we have no specimens; in its glabrous foliage it differs from all but C. vernicosa. A third species is founded on a Tasmanian plant not rare on the summit of Mount Wellington, where it forms large matted patches. The first specimens I had seen were gathered there by Mr. Frazer, and more latterly by myself and Mr. Gunn, who detected it in other mountainous parts of the colony. I have called it C. asteli&aelig;folia (3.), from the great similarity it bears in foliage, general aspect and habitat to Astelia alpina, [[Author:Robert Brown (1773-1858)|Br. The leaves are extremely variable in breadth and in the degree of recurving in their margins; they are often very like those of C. longifolia, but never exceed a span in length. The scapes too are longer, less leafy, and the flowers larger than in that species; the hairy ach&aelig;nia also afford a constant character. The flowers of the ray are pink, the pappus yellow. The above three species are Australian. Those found in New Zealand are C. gracilenta (4.), a plant so very near, even in the variable form of its leaves, to C. longifolia, that it was not till I had examined the styles that I could detect any difference; the conical papillose portion of these being much produced, gradually acuminated, and three times the length of the lower part of the arms, with the papill&aelig; almost filiform. From C. asteli&aelig;folia it differs in having a glabrous ach&aelig;nium, which is much longer than in any of the former species. Nearly allied to this is the C. graminifolia (5.), mainly distinguished from the former by its foliage. Decidedly the finest species are the three following, two of them originally discovered and described by Forster; the first is C. spectabilis (6.), of which I possess a specimen from Mr. Bidwill. Though hardly exceeding a span in length, including the scape, the base of the stem, while covered with the sheathing leaves, is fully an inch in diameter, and densely clothed with long, beautifully silky wool. The leaves are broad and remarkably coriaceous, their upper surface, in the dried state, minutely striated with anastomosing lines, and the under densely clothed with buff-coloured appressed tomentum. The scape is stout, loosely covered with shaggy white wool, and producing a large, solitary, apparently white flower, an inch and a half broad. The ach&aelig;nia are elongated, all of them glabrous; the tubes of the corolla, especially of the ray, have long, straight, pellucid, scattered, distantly jointed, and very slender hairs. Pappus yellow, rigid; the outer set&aelig;, as in the other species of the genus, short, the rest gradually lengthening. Ligules of the flowers of the ray linear, abruptly truncated, with three large teeth and four nerves. Anthers shortly biaristate at the base; styles with the arms rather elongated, the conical papillose portion of those of the disc short and rather obtuse. Forster's first species, C. holosericea (Aster, Forst.), has been found, I believe, by that botanist alone: his specimens exist in the British Museum, accompanied by his fine drawing of