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Compositae (Genus embracing about)

A genus embracing about twenty-five species of greenhouse or hardy, more or less silvery-silky, perennial herbs; one inhabits the Auckland and Campbell Islands, the rest are natives of New Zealand, one being also found in Australia. Flower-heads heterogamous, radiate; involucre broadly campanulate or hemispherical, the bracts many-seriate, imbricate; scapes (or scape-like peduncles) one-headed. Leaves entire. Two species have been introduced. For culture, see Olearia, p. 481, Vol. II. C. coriacea (leathery). fl. heads 1 1/2in. to 3in. in diameter; ray florets white, excessively numerous; disk yellow; scapes very stout, cobwebby and cottony. l. 10in. to 18in. long, 1/2in. to 2 1/2in. broad, lanceolate, coriaceous, narrowed into broad, woolly sheaths, covered above with cottony hairs, below with dense, white-silvery tomentum. New Zealand. Hardy. SYN. Aster coriacca.

C. spectabilis (remarkable). fl.-heads 2in. in diameter; ray florets white or pale lilac, very numerous, revolute; disk yellow; scapes several, stout, stiff, erect, longer than the leaves. May. l. numerous, strict, erect, usually 5in. to 7in. long, 1/2in. to 1in. broad, thickly coriaceous, ensiform, elliptic-lanceolate, or linear-oblong, narrowed at base, then dilating into broad, tumid sheaths 2in. to 4in. long. Rootstock woody. Mountains of New Zealand, 1882. Hardy. (B. M. 6653.)