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NOTES ON SOME COMPOSIT.E OF OT.VGO, NEAV ZEALAND. 255
on the young leaves, and leaf and flower-slioots. It varies somewhat
in the fineness of the haii'S of which it consists, and in their number
and closeness of aggregation and appression. Ou the under side of the
leaf the hairs are so fine, short, and closely appressed, that they pro-
duce a very delicate, uniform felt, of such tenuity as to admit of all
the minute reticulations of the leaf being distinctly seen through it
the leaf-sm-face really appearing to the naked eye to be glabrous.
Here a silvery or shining surface is produced ; on the other hand, on
young leaves and on the flower-pedicels, the tomentum becomes chafty
and brown. Leaf generally broadly ovate, tapering to a point, 2^-3 in.
long, 1^-11" in. broad; dries blackish above, a colour which contrasts
strongly with the whiteness of the tomentum of its under surface
leaf-surface generally iiTegularly wavy, seldom flat ; margin never
toothed, sometimes entire, generally irregularly sinuate or notched
sometimes thickened ; very coriaceous ; sometimes unequal at base
veins and reticulations conspicuous below ; petiole about ^ in. long.
Inflorescence, a panicle rather than a corymb, 3-4 in. across, much
branched or the reverse; branches loose, or close, or spreading; pa-
nicle-form most distinct when flowers are few ;
pedicels slender, terete,
stouter and longer when panicle few-flowered, j— | in. long, more
vUlose in the smaller forms. Head resembles that of a SoUdago or
Eupatoria, variable in size, generally under \ in, long. Involucral scales
vary in size, texture, and villosity of outer surface and margin ; scarcely
rigid ; oblong, lanceolate, obtuse ; outer submembranous, as pdose as
the flower-pedicels ; inner subglabrous submembranous (more so than
outer) ; margins of greater tenuity than centre—with the tips only, or
chiefly, or the whole margins, ciUate-lacerate. Pappus generally reddish
or orange, at least in herbarium specimens.
I have no authentic specimens of the North Island species O.fur-
furacea, Hook; f. ; but from the description in the ' Handbook,' I
doubt whether it and nitida are properly separated. My plant, assigned
by Dr. Hooker to nitida, seems to be a passage form, approaching
the characters oifurfuracea.
2. 0. avicennicBfolia, Hook. f. {Euryhia, Fl. N. Z.). Stoneyhill
bushi; top of the " Big rock," Saddlehill ; October, young, W. L. L.
The "Ake-ake" of the Otago Maori (Hector), a term also applied
to 0. nitida {q. v.). A large, handsome shrub, with somewhat the
habit of our Eupatorium cannabinunt, L. As ornamental as the pre-
;