Stifftia
(so called after A. J. Stifft, 1760-1836, Imperial Physician in Austria). SYNS. Aristomenia, Augusta, Sanhilaria. ORD. Compositae. A genus comprising four or five species of stove, glabrous trees and shrubs, natives of Brazil or Guiana. Flower-heads yellow or orange, large and solitary or few together, or smaller and paniculate; involucral bracts in many series, imbricated, obtuse, appressed, the outer ones gradually shortening; receptacle naked, foveolate; florets tubular, with a limb of five, narrow, revolute lobes; achenes elongated; pappus bristles in many series. Leaves alternate, coriaceous, entire. S. chrysantha is a fine, showy, evergreen shrub, requiring a well-drained, turfy loam, and a light, airy situation. It is propagated by cuttings of the young wood, inserted in sandy soil, under a bell glass, in bottom-heat.
S. chrysantha (golden-flowered). fl.-heads orange-colour, 2in. in diameter, solitary; florets indefinite; pappus saffron-colour. February to April. l. lanceolate, acuminate. h. 6ft. Brazil, 1840. (B. M. 4438.)