narrow woolly border showing on each side of the line of junction, the rounded edge of the leaf constricted here and there, and hence appearing crenate. Peduncles terminating the branchlets, 2–4 in. long, clothed with numerous leafy bracts. Heads solitary, 1¼ in. diam.; involucral bracts few, broad, herbaceous, woolly on the back. Achenes linear-oblong, glabrous, obscurely ribbed. Pappus white, soft.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 161; Kirk, Students' Fl. 344.
South Island: Dusky Bay, Lyall, Hector and Buchanan! 1500–3000 ft.
Two specimens in Mr. Buchanan's herbarium are all I have seen of this curious and most distinct species.
26. S. cassinioides, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 163.—An erect much-branched shrub 4–10 ft. high; bark deciduous, loose and papery; branches numerous, crowded, spreading, brittle, tomentose above. Leaves loosely imbricating, ⅙–¼ in. long, linear or linear-oblong, obtuse or subacute, sessile, coriaceous, entire, glabrous above, beneath clothed with appressed whitish-yellow tomentum. Heads solitary, sessile, terminating the branches, ⅓ in. diam.; involucral bracts 8–10, linear-oblong, obtuse, coriaceous, tomentose, the inner with broad scarious margins. Florets 12–20; ray-florets 4–6, with a broad and short revolute ligule; disc-florets broadly campanulate, deeply 5-lobed. Achenes linear, grooved, glabrous, expanded into a cup-shaped border at the tip. Pappus-hairs white, rigid, scabrid.—Kirk, Students' Fl. 351.
South Island: Not uncommon in mountain districts from Nelson to northwest Otago. 2000–4000 ft. January–February.
A singular species, quite unlike any other. It has much of the habit of Cassinia Vauvilliersii, but is a larger plant, with more numerous crowded branchlets and different tomentum.
27. S. elæagnifolius, Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 150, t. 41.—A stout or slender spreading shrub 4–10 ft. high; branches grooved, and with the petioles, under-surface of the leaves, and inflorescence densely clothed with pale-buff tomentum. Leaves on grooved petioles ½–1½ in. long; blade 2–5 in., obovate or ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong to oblong-lanceolate, obtuse or subacute, coriaceous, glabrous and shining above, midrib and principal veins usually evident. Panicles terminal, stout, branched; pedicels densely tomentose. Heads ⅓ in. diam., campanulate or obconic, discoid; involucral bracts 9–12, linear-oblong, obtuse, coriaceous, very densely woolly. Female florets often wanting; when present 1–3, small, tubular with the mouth minutely toothed. Disc-florets numerous, with a narrow-campanulate 5-toothed limb. Achenes linear, grooved, hispid. Pappus-hairs dirty-white, rigid, scabrid.—Handb. N.Z. Fl. 162; Kirk, Students' Fl. 349.
