from whose bases arose no fewer than thirteen flowering scapes, ten of them with the blossoms fully expanded. The delicacy of the rays, tipped with a faint rose-colour, forms a striking contrast with the dark purple eye and the glossy varnished deep green foliage. Like many other Antarctic plants, it varies considerably in size, some of our specimens being scarcely an inch and a half across the leaves, which lie densely compacted and all horizontally patent, radiating from the summit of the root like the spokes of a wheel, of a very coriaceous texture, singularly smooth and shining like the surface of a shell, or as if covered with a thick coat of copal varnish: their apices in the smaller specimens are incrassated or the leaves are clubbed at the apex, from the union of the thick costa with the equally incrassated margins. This thickening extends to the bracteæ or leaves on the scapes and even to the scales of the involucre; when dry they are of a rich but pale yellow-brown colour.
The genus Celmisia, as modified above, will contain several species very closely allied in habit, and all bearing a much greater similarity to the original Australian C. longifolia, A. C., than the C. vernicosa does. Upon the closest examination, I can detect no characters of sufficient importance to warrant any further subdivision of the following species, which I shall therefore include under the name of Eucelmisia, considering them as typical of the genus, near to which the above-described species should assuredly rank.
I shall here, in a note, subjoin the characters of the other species, and proceed with some remarks upon them[1]
- ↑
Synopsis of the species of Celmisia known to the Author.
CELMISIA, Cass.
§ I. Eucelmisia.
1 . Species Australasicæ.
1. C. longifolia, Cass.; foliis linearibus utrinque argenteo-lanatis scapo lanuginoso subæquilongis, pappo rufo, achæniis glaberrimis, stylorum apicibus breviusculis obtusis.
α. foliis explanatis, scapo folioso.—Hab. Jamieson's Valley, Port Jackson; Gaudichaud.
β. foliorum marginibus revolutis, scapo nudiusculo.—Hab. Blue Mountains; Cunningham.
2. C. spathulata, A. C.; "foliis elliptico-oblongis in petiolum longe attenuatis utrinque glabris."—DeC.
Hab. Oyster Harbour, King George's Sound; A. Cunningham.
3. C. asteliæfolia, MSS.; foliis elliptico- v. lineari-lanceolatis, supra argenteo-lanatis subtus dense sericeo-tomentosis marginibus revolutis, scapis folio subduplo longioribus parce foliosis, achæniis pilosis, antheris basi breviter biaristatis, stylorum apicibus ut in C longifolia.
Hab. Mount Wellington and other lofty mountains of Tasmania; Frazer and Gunn.
2. Species Novæ Zelandiæ.
4. C. gracilenta, Hook. fil. Aster gracilentus, Banks and Sol. MSS.; foliis scapisque ut in C. asteliæfolia, achæniis glaberrimis, styli ramis longe productis gradatim acuminatis, papillis filiformibus elongatis.
Hab. New Zealand, Northern Island; Banks and Solander. Great Barrière Island on the East coast; Dr. Sinclair. Lofty mountains of Waikato Lake; Colenso, Bidwill. Mount Egmont; Dr. Dieffenbach.
5. C. graminifolia, Hook. fil.; foliis lanceolatis v. lineari-lanceolatis subflaccidis, supra glaberrimis, subtus appresse argenteo-lanatis, acuminatis, scapis 2–3 foliis brevioribus, stylis ut in C. gracilenta.
Hab. Bay of Islands, New Zealand.
6. C. spectabilis. Hook. fil.; foliis oblongo-lanceolatis integerrimis valde coriaceis basi vaginantibus longis-
