Sonchus.] LXXIII. COMPOSITH (OLIVER AND HIERN). 457 
116. SONCHUS, Linn. ; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. p. 528. 
Capitula homogamous, ligulate. Involucre campanulate oblong or 
cylindrical, at length usually thickened at the base; bracts in several 
rows, the innermost ones usually longer and subequal, the outer short: 
imbricated. Receptacle flat, naked. Ligule truncate, 5-dentate at the 
apex. Anther-base sagittate; auricles shortly setaceous-acuminate. 
Style-branches slender. Achenes obovoid-oblong or narrow, more or 
less compressed rarely subterete, 10-20-costate or -striate, somewhat 
narrowed at both ends, not beaked. Pappus copiously setose, fine, 
smooth, usually white, deciduous in one piece.—Herbs sometimes 
shrubby at the base, with alternate or radical leaves and yellow 
owers. 
A genus of about 24 species widely spread especially over the Old World. 
Boissier, Fl. Orient. ili. p. 797, gives the widely spread Mediterranean and Levant 
Species, Sonchus tenerrimus, Linn., as extending to Abyssinia. 
Capitula many-flowered ; inner involucral bracts numerous. 
Annual, 
peaves oval or oblong. Capitula subglabrous. Achenes 
Oblong. 2. . 1 ww ee ew ee ee 
Leaves lanceolate linear. Capitula woolly at the base. 
Achenes obovate. 
Involucral bracts setose-hispid . 2... + + + 
Involucral bracts glabrous or somewhat woolly at the 
. base, not setose-hispid . . . . - + + + + 
Capitula 8_27-flowered; inner involucral bracts 5-10. 
S. oleraceus. 
— 
. 
2. S. angustissimus. 
3. 8. Schweinfurthii. 
Perennial, 
Toosely branched. - 
chenes transversely scabrid-rugulose or squamulose. ; 
Pedicels slender y te men . i . . . . 4. 8. Bipontini. 
Pedicels rigid, not slender. 
Capitula 20-27-flowered, rather numerous . S. cornutus. 
S. Brunneri. 
Capitul - 
apitula about 13-flowered, fow " '8. prenanthoides. 
Achenes smooth foe ee 
osely branched. Achenes smooth. 
Habit bushy. Capitula 20-25-flowered 
Habit virgate. Capitula about 8-flowered 
l. S. oleraceus, Linn. Sp. Pl., edit. i. p. 794 (1753). A coarse 
srect annual, 14-3 ft. high. Stem glaucescent striate branched above. 
ves oval or oblong, undivided or runcinate or pinnatifid, usually 
aculeate-denticulate, 1-6 in. long ; those of the stem sessile amplexi- 
caul auriculate. Capitula campanulate, about } in. long exclusive of 
© flowers, many-flowered, on rather short usually setose-glandular 
pedicels, in corymbose cymes. Inner involucral bracts numerous, sub- 
glabrous, linear-lanceolate, subobtuse. Achenes compressed, obovate, 
0-15.striate, brown, } in. long, transversely rugose 8. ea hahter 
Proper or in the subspecies S. asper, All. (8. spinosus, Lam.) without 
transverse rugosities.—A. Rich. Fl. Abyss. i. p. 467; S. macrotus, 
Fenzl in Flora, 1844, p. 312; S. Schimperi, A. Br. et Bouché App. 
nd. Sem. Hort. Berol. 1857, p. 1. 
Speen’ ,WANA. Abyssinia, Schimper! Nubia, Kotschy! Karagué and Unyoro, 
A and Grant! Sennaar and Ukereve-land. 
“osmopolitan weed. 
SP NAH 
. 8S. melanolepis. 
9. S. rarifolius. 
