Stewart Island: Rakiahua, P. Goyen! Kirk! Smith's Lookout and Mount Anglem, Kirk! 1000–3300 ft.
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 18–14 in. diam. Leaves very closely packed, imbricated in several series all round the branch, erecto-patent, 110–16 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 15–14 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.
South Island: Common on the mountains of Nelson and Marlborough. Canterbury—Mount Torlesse, Cockayne! Black Range, T.F.C.; Craigieburn Mountains, Petrie! Otago—Mount Pisa and the Hector Mountains, Petrie! 3500–6500 ft. December–January.
Easily distinguished from R. eximia, R. mammillaris, &c., by the hairs on the leaves not enveloping them so as to conceal their shape.
11. HELICHRYSUM, Vaill.
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.
A very large and heteromorphous genus, found in most parts of the world, and especially plentiful in South Africa and Australia. It has been united with Gnaphalium by many authors, but can usually be distinguished by the hermaphrodite florets being always much more numerous than the female ones. All the New Zealand species are endemic.
