Staavia
(named after Martin Staaf, a correspondent of Linnaeus). ORD. Bruniaceae. A genus comprising about half-a-dozen species of greenhouse shrubs, resembling Heaths or Epacrises, and confined to the Cape of Good Hope. Flowers small, collected into terminal, disk-like heads, involucrated by numerous, mostly shining, whitish bracts, which are either longer or shorter than the leaves; petals free. Leaves small, erecto-patent or recurved, linear or acicular. The following is the best-known of the few species which have been grown in this country. It thrives in sandy peat, and may be propagated by cuttings of the young wood, inserted in sand, under a glass. S. glutinosa (glutinous). fl. white, agglutinated with resinous juice; heads usually solitary, the size of a cherry; bracts of involucre whitish, greenish at base, 1/2in. long, with a black mucro. April. l. approximate, erect or spreading, from six to eight lines long, linear, trigonal, obtuse, callous, and, as well as the branches, quite smooth. h. 3ft. or more. 1793. (L. B. C. 852.)