Raspalia
(named after F. V. Raspail, a celebrated French chemist and botanist, 1794-1878). ORD. Bruniaceae. A genus comprising seven or eight species of small, greenhouse, Heath-like shrubs, with twiggy branches, confined to South Africa. Flowers white or yellow, small, disposed in small, globose or elongated, not involucrate, densely aggregate heads; calyx five-lobed; petals five, free, not keeled; bracts shorter than the flowers. Leaves dense, imbricated, appressed, thickly coriaceous, glabrous or velvety. R. microphylla, the only species calling for description, thrives in a compost of sandy peat. Propagated by cuttings of young, stubby shoots, inserted in sand, under a bell glass, in a cold frame.
R. microphylla (small-leaved). fl. white, minute; heads the size of a pea. July. l. half to one line long and wide, spirally inserted, the younger ones ciliolate. Branches short, woolly, a little spreading. h. 1ft. or more. 1804.