Mairia
(so called after Professor le Maire, of Ghent, who collected this plant at the Cape). ORD. Compositae. A genus containing ten species of half-hardy or green-house herbs or sub-shrubs, all natives of South Africa. Flower-heads intermediate or rather large; ray-florets purplish, rose, or pink; disk-florets yellow; involucre campanulate or hemispherical; receptacle flat, naked. Leaves radical or alternate. The species succeed in a compost of turfy loam and peat, and require an abundance of moisture at nearly all times. Propagated, in spring, by divisions; or by seeds, sown in a cold frame. Probably the only species yet introduced is the one here described. M. crenata (scolloped). fl.-heads solitary, 1in. to 1 1/2in. in diameter, with a bright purple ray and a yellow disk; scape rising from 1in. to 6in. from the centre of the rosette. April. l. in a dense rosette, deep green, fleshy, oblong-ovate in outline, tapering at the base into a petiole; margins distantly toothed. Plant stemless. 1820. Greenhouse or half-hardy. (B. R. 855, under name of Gerberia crenata.)