CARDUACEAE. 4<i9 



1. Verbesina alba L. Sp. PI. 902. 1753. 



Eclipta erecta L. Mant. 2: 286. 1771. 

 Eclipta alba Hassk. PI. Jav. Rav. 528. 1848. 



Annual, appressed-pubescent, erect or diffuse, 1.5-9 dm. high. Leaves 

 lanceolate, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, denticu- 

 late or entire, narrowed to a sessile base, or the lower petioled, 2-12 cm. long, 

 4-20 mm. wide; heads commonly numerous, 6-12 mm. broad, nearly sessile, or 

 slender-peduncled; rays short, nearly white; anthers brown. 



Wet or moist soil, New Providence, Great Exuma and Long Island : Bermuda ; 

 the United States from New York, Illinois and Nebraska, southward to temperate 

 South America ; West Indies ; all warm temperate and tropical regions. ECLIPTA. 



19. MELANTHERA Rohr, Skrift. Nat. Selsk. 2: 213. 1792. 



Perennial herbs, often quite woody, with opposite petioled dentate, some- 

 times hastate leaves, and peduncled heads of small white yellowish or violet 

 tubular flowers. Involucre low-hemispheric, its few ovate to lanceolate, nearly 

 equal bracts imbricated in 2 or 3 series. Receptacle convex or low-conic, scaly. 

 Corollas subcylindric, with an expanded throat, 5-toothed. Anthers sometimes 

 black, truncate or subsagittate at the base. Style-branches long. Achenes 

 4-angled; pappus of distinct caducous awns. [Greek, black anther.] About 10 

 species, of tropical and subtropical America. Type species: Bidens nivea L. 



1. Melanthera deltoidea Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 107. 1803. 



Melanthera brevifolia O. E. Schulz, in Urban, Symb. Ant. 7: 123. 1911. 

 Melanthera crenata O. E. Schulz, loe. cit. 1911. 



Sparingly appressed-pubescent, scabrate, branched, 5-8 dm. high, the 

 branches ascending. Leaves ovate or hastate-ovate, scabrate, 2-7 cm. long, 

 serrate, incised or crenate, acute, obtuse or acuminate at the apex, narrowed 

 or subtruncate at the base, the petioles 0.5-3 em. long; heads slender-peduncled, 

 solitary or few together, 6-8 mm. in diameter; bracts of the involucre ovate or 

 oblong-ovate, 3-4.5 mm. long, obtuse or acutish; corolla white, 5-6 mm. long. 



Waste and cultivated grounds, throughout the archipelago from Abaco, Great 

 Bahama and Andros to Watling's. Fortune Island and the Cay Sal bank : Florida ; 

 Cuba : Jamaica. Referred by Schcepf to Bidens nivea L/., by Mrs. Northrop to Amellus 

 aspera (Jacq.) Kuntze. Recorded by Hitchcock as Eleutheranthera rudcralis. Con- 

 sists of several races differing in leaf-form and serration. MELANTHERA. 



2. Melanthera hastata (Walt.) Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 107. 1803. 



Athanasia hastata Walt. Fl. Car. 201. 1788. 



Similar to M. deltoidea, but with acute or acuminate involucre-bracts, the 

 fruiting heads about 10 mm. in diameter, the leaves often more deeply incised 

 or lobed. 



Water Cay, Cay Sal Bank : southeastern United States ; Cuba ; Mexico to 

 Panama. HASTATE MELANTHERA. 



20. ISOCARPHA R. Br. Trans. Linn. Soe. 12: 110. 1817. 



Branched slender herbs, with alternate or opposite, entire or toothed 

 leaves, and many-flowered, small heads of tubular white, perfect and fertile 

 flowers, solitary or clustered at the end of the branches. Involucre-bracts im- 

 bricated in 2-4 series, slightly unequal. Receptacle oblong or conic, chaffy, 



