460 LXXI. COMPOSITH (OLIVER AND HIERN). (Sonchus. 
8. S. melanolepis. Fresen. in Mus. Senckenb. iii. 76 (1889). 
Perennial, shrubby below, much branched, about a foot high, Leaves 
narrowly runcinate or (in the variety) linear and entire, glabrous, glau- 
cescent, sessile, more or less auriculate at the base, ranging up to 3 in. 
long. Capitula campanulate-oblong, dark, 3-4 in. long, 20-20- 
flowered, actually or obsoletely tomentose and often black-setose at 
base, on short pedicels 2-3 together at the ends of the slender shoots. 
Inner involucral bracts about 8, linear, obtuse, nearly glabrous, 
somewhat compressed, smooth, about 10-striate, jy in. long, drab- 
brown. Pappus } in. long, soft, white—A. Rich. Fl. Abyss. i. p. 467. 
Wile Land. Abyssinia, Schimper! Riippell! 
9. S. rarifolius, 0. H. An erect twiggy perennial from thick 
shrubby sometimes woolly crown, 1-21 ft. high. Stems slender, gla- 
brous, dichotomous; branches at an acute angle. Leaves few, lanceo- 
late, glabrous or puberulous, entire or aculeate-denticulate, $-$ 10- 
long, sessile. Capitula narrowly cylindrical, 4-2 in. long, about 8- 
flowered, on slender pedicels in a much branched cyme. Inner involu- 
cral bracts linear, obtuse, 6-8. Achenes linear, scarcely compressed, 
smooth, } in. long, about 10-striate, narrow, pale brown. Pappus 
4-3 in. long. 
Upper Guinea. Niger Expedition, at Nupe, Barter / 
Mozamb. Distr. Zomba and East end of Lake Shirwa, Meller ! 
117. LAUNZA, Cass. in Dict. Sc. Nat. xxv. p. 321 (Microrhynchus, 
Less.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Pl. ii. p. 528.) 
Capitula homogamons, ligulate. Involucre campanulate oblong or 
cylindrical ; bracts in many rows, imbricate, usually with scarious 
margins, the inner ones subequal, the outer ones shorter. Receptacle 
flat, naked. Ligule truncate, 5-dentate at the apex. Anther-base 
sagittate, auricles acute or shortly setaceous-acuminate. Style-branches 
slender. Achenes narrow, not compressed, 4—5-costate, truncate at 
the apex. Pappus copiously setose, fine, white, smooth, deciduous 
one piecé.—Glabrous herbs with mostly radical leaves and yellow 
flowers. 
t neem of about 20 species, extending from South Africa and the Canary Islands 
oO india. 
Rhabdotheca Rueppellii, Schultz Bip. in Schweinf. et Aschers. Enum. p. 286, name 
only, from Abyssinia, is unknown to us. 
Rhahbdotheca chondrilloides, Schultz Bip. 1. c., i.e. Sonchus chondrilloides, Sibth. FI. 
Gree, vill. p. 67, t. 791, is givenas common to Egypt and Nubia; it occurs also 10 
win parts of the Mediterranean region, but we have seen no specimen from Tropical 
rica, 
1. %. bellidifolia, Cass. in Dict. Sc. Nat. xxv. p. 321 (1822). A 
glabrous flagelliform perennial herb with long slender simple or occa- 
sionally branched prostrate stems from the rosulate crown of the root, 
often rooting at the nodes. Leaves spathulate or oblanceolate, fascl- 
culate with elongated nodes and often two small scale-like leaves 
