panulate, 4-lobed. Anthers obtuse at the base. Style-branches of the disc-florets short, truncate. Achenes scarcely compressed, obtusely 3–4-ribbed or -angled. Pappus wanting.
A small genus of 4 species, 3 of which are Asiatic or Australasian, the fourth South American. It is closely allied to Cotula, but differs in the inflorescence and in the tubular corollas of the female florets. The New Zealand species extends to Australia, the Pacific islands, and eastern tropical Asia.
1. C. orbicularis, Lour. Fl. Cochinch. ii. 493.—A strong-smelling prostrate or suberect much -branched glabrous or sparsely woolly annual; stems 3–9 in. long, spreading from the root. Leaves ¼–⅔ in. long, oblong or oblong-lanceolate or obovate-oblong, narrowed at the base, sparingly irregularly toothed or almost pinnatifid, glabrous or rarely hairy. Heads ⅛–¼ in. diam., globose, solitary, axillary, sessile or rarely on very short peduncles; involucral bracts broadly oblong, membranous. Female florets very numerous; corolla minute, 4-lobed. Disc-florets few; corolla campanulate. Achenes tetragonous, slightly hairy.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 329. Myriogyne minuta. Less. in Linnæa, vi. (1831) 219; A. Cunn. Precur. n. 444; Raoul, Choix, 45; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 130; Benth. Fl. Austral. iii. 553. Cotula minuta, Forst. Prodr. n. 301; A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 235; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 144.
North and South Islands: Not uncommon from the North Cape to Central Otago. Sea-level to 2000 ft. January–March.
18. ABROTANELLA, Cass.
Glabrous perennial herbs, always of small size, often moss-like. Leaves alternate, imbricate, quite entire. Heads small, solitary or crowded in little terminal corymbs, heterogamous and discoid. Involucre campanulate; bracts few, in about 2 series, nearly equal or the outer shorter. Eeceptacle small, naked. Female florets exterior, in 1 series, tubular, 3–4-toothed, fertile. Disc-florets hermaphrodite or male, tubular, 4-toothed. Anthers obtuse or shortly pointed at the base. Style-branches of the disc-florets very short, truncate. Achenes 4-angled or -ribbed, clavate, terete or compressed. Pappus wanting.
A small genus of about 14 species, most abundant in New Zealand, but also found in Australia and Tasmania, Fuegia, and the Falkland Islands. One species has also been described from Rodriguez. All the New Zealand species are endemic.
| * Heads several in a small terminal cluster. | |
| Leaves ½–1 in., linear-spathulate. Heads on a short leafy peduncle. Achenes obovoid or tetragonous | 1. A. spathulata. |
| Leaves ¼–⅓ in., narrow ovate or lanceolate. Heads almost hidden among the upper leaves. Achenes with 4 short horns | 2. A. rosulata. |
