182 LEAFLETS Or PHILIPPINE BOTANY (VoL. I, Arr. 7 
DISTRIBUTION: 
United States, Australia, southern Asia and especially 
abundant in the Mediterranean region. 
58. LACTUCA LINN. 
Tall, much branched leafy herbs, with alternate leaves 
and milky juice. Heads homogamous, rather small, forming 
large panicles; involucre cylindric, its bracts imbricated in 
several series; receptacle naked, flat; flowers all ligulate, 
truneate and 5-toothed, yellow, white or blue; anthers sagit- 
tate at the base; style divisions usually slender; achenes 
oval or linear, flat, 3 to 5-costate on each face, narrowed 
above or contracted into a slender beak terminated by a 
small disk; pappus bristles very numerous, soft, white or 
brownish. 
Species about 90; mostly in the old world, compara- 
tively few in North America. The leaves of many species 
are used in salads, especially those of the great number of 
improved varieties. 
Achenes black, winged. 
i, L. brevirostris. 
Achenes brown, ribbed. 
Leaf edges and nerves beneath spinulose. 
2. L. scariola. 
Leaf edges and nerves beneath without spines. 
3. L. thunbergiana. 
1. L. brevirostris Champ. in Kew. Journ. 4; 237, 1849-57, 
Benth. Fl. Hongk. 192, 1861. F. Vil. Nov. App. 120, 1880. Hook, 
Fl. Brit. Ind. 3; 405, 1881. Vid. Phan. Cuming. Filip. 122. 
1885: Rev. Pl. Vase. Filip. 165, 1886. Hayata in Journ. Coll. Sci. 
Tokyo 18; Art. 8, 38, 1904.—A glabrous annual, with tall 
panieulately branched stems. Leaves very long, linear or 
linear lanceolate, sessile, entire or only scabrous along the 
edges, the base often expanded and margins apiculate. Panicle 
large, the solitary head upon an elongated bracteate peduncle; 
bracts glabrous, obtuse; flowers all ligulate, yellow or be- 
coming purplish; achene much flattened, oblong, coal black when 
