Cryptostemma
(from kryptos, hidden, and stemma, a crown; the crown of the flower is hidden). ORD. Compositae. A small genus (the three species of which are described below) of diffuse or creeping, hoary herbs. Pappus uniseriate, paleaceous, hidden amongst the hairs of the achene; receptacle honeycombed; involucral scales in many rows, imbricated. Leaves downy. Seeds should be sown on a gentle hotbed, in early spring. When the seedlings are large enough, two or three may be placed in a pot, and either grown entirely in a greenhouse, or placed out of doors about the middle of June.
C. calendulaceum (Marigold-flowered). fl.-heads, ray-florets pale yellow, purplish underneath, many, sterile, slightly three-toothed at the point, two-ribbed; disk-florets greenish, with a black-purple, five-cleft border, hermaphrodite, cut-shaped, smooth; receptacle honeycombed, bristly; peduncles one-flowered at the ends of the branches, two or three together, long, striate, clothed with weak red hairs. May and June. l. lyrate pinnatifid, three-nerved, on the upper side green, hispid; on the under tomentose, white. Cape of Good Hope and Australia. A tender annual. (B. M. 2252.) C. Forbesianum (Forbes's). fl.-heads, ray-florets yellow; disk dark-coloured. Summer. l. quite glabrous above, snow-white beneath, pinnatipartite (some simple); lobes linear lanceolate, quite entire, with revolute margins. Stemless. Cape of Good Hope.
C. niveum (snowy). fl.-heads yellow, solitary. l. long-stalked, ovate, cordate, or roundish. Cape of Good Hope. A decumbent or creeping branched herb, white-woolly in most parts. SYN. Microstephium niveum.