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2.Note on Helichrysum fasciculatum Buchanan.
In the “Transactions of the New Zealand Institute,” vol. 9, p. 529, Mr. J. Buchanan described, under the name of Helichrysum fasciculatum, a plant collected on the Tararua Mountains by Mr. H. H. Travers. When preparing my “Manual of the New Zealand Flora,” Mr. Buchanan's types of that particular species were not accessible to me, and the only specimen available for examination was in such poor condition that no positive conclusions could be arrived at. Under such circumstances, I had to rely principally on Mr. Buchanan's description and figure, which seemed to show that the species was distinct.
During a recent visit to the Dominion Museum I had an opportunity of inspecting Mr. Buchanan's original specimens, and was at once impressed with their resemblance to Raoulia grandiflora. Since then Mr. Hamilton has been kind enough to lend them to me for leisurely examination, the result of which I submit herewith. In the first place, an examination of the flowers proves that the plant cannot be referred to Helichrysum, as that genus is understood at the present time. Helichrysum, in addition to its numerous hermaphrodite florets (a character which distinguishes it from Gnaphalium, in which the female florets outnumber the hermaphrodite) possesses slender pappus-hairs, which are scabrid or pectinate at the base, and the achenes are either glabrous or simply puberulous. Now, in Mr. Buchanan's plant the hermaphrodite florets certainly outnumber the females, but the pappus-hairs are stout, rigid, compressed, thickened and toothed above, but quite naked at the base, and the achenes are hirsute with long hairs. These characters of the pappus and achenes are not only at variance with the definition of Helichrysum, but agree perfectly with that of the section Imbricaria of the genus Raoulia, to which R. grandiflora belongs.
Comparing H. fasciculatum with R. grandiflora, they appear almost identical, one important difference being alone noticeable: R. grandiflora invariably has its flower-heads solitary and terminal. I have gathered
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it in many localities in both Islands, and examined hundreds of specimens, but I have never seen even two flower-heads to a stem, and I understand that the experience of other observers is the same. On the other hand, Mr. Buchanan's two flowering specimens of H. fasciculatum each have three flower-heads. If this character should prove constant, it is quite sufficient to uphold the specific distinction of his plant, but until additional specimens with the same peculiarity have been obtained it is permissible to take the view that we are dealing with a pair of abnormal specimens. In support of this view I may mention that the individual heads are precisely similar to those of R. grandiflora, the shape and size of the corolla, the pappus-hairs, and the achenes being identical in both. The leaves of H. fasciculatum are slightly larger and broader than in R. grandiflora, and the covering of felted tomentum somewhat denser, but these differences are not more than might be expected in an unusually luxuriant form. On the whole, I am inclined to regard it as an aberrant form of R. grandiflora rather than a distinct species.
Both Sir J. D. Hooker and myself have expressed the opinion that the remarkable differences between the pappus-hairs of the two sections of the genus Raoulia would ultimately, when the gnaphalioid Compositae were fully worked out, prove sufficient to separate them as distinct genera. In a series of papers contributed to the Botanical Society of Geneva, under the title of “Contributions à l'Etude des Composées,” Dr. Gustave Beauverd, the well-known keeper of the Boissier Herbarium, has endeavoured to clear up some of the difficulties which at present encumber the classification of the Gnaphalieae. In a special number of the series he discusses the relationships of Raoulia with its allies, and establishes three new genera—Psychrophyton, consisting of Hooker's section Imbricaria of Raoulia; Leucogenes, containing Helichrysum Leontopodium and H. grandiceps; and Ewartia, comprising three species from Victoria and Tasmania, of which R. catipes is the type. Dr. Beauverd's paper, which is printed in the Bulletin of the society for 1910 (pp. 207 to 241), is one of the most important publications dealing with the New Zealand Compositae that has appeared for many years, and I hope to prepare a résumé of it for publication in the Transactions.