286 COMPOSITE. Zexmenia. 



leaves, and heads of yellow flowers, of moderate or small size, in ours solitary on 

 slender peduncles terminating the branches. Ray-akenes commonly triquetrous 

 and 3-awned ; those of the disk either much compressed or thicker, with winged 

 or bordered margins, but the wings variable. Style-branches of the hermaphro- 

 dite flowers with acute hispid tips. Nov. Veg. Descr. i. 13 ; Gray, PI. Wright. 

 i. 12 ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 373. -The genuine species (Lasianthcea, Zucc., 

 Lipochcetce Americance, DC.) form a marked group : some others too nearly 

 approach Wedelia on the one hand, and Verbesina on the other. 



Z. brevifolia, GRAY. Much branched and below shrubby, 2 or 3 feet high, strigose-scabrous 

 or hispidulous, and the branches cinereous: leaves (alternate on the branches!) small, less 

 than an inch long, ovate and oval, mostly entire, short-petioled : heads solitary on slender 

 peduncles terminating the branches, half-inch high : involucre between hemispherical and 

 campanulate, of broad mostly ovate bracts imbricated in 3 or 4 series, the outer looser and 

 partly foliaceous : rays 5 to 9, small : corolla-lobes glabrous : akenes obovate, flat, some 

 nearly marginless, some at maturity conspicuously callous-winged, slightly narrowed at 

 summit between the wings or margin and the subulate-attenuate awns ; between the bases 

 of these the free or partly united squamellre are conspicuous, yet sometimes obsolete in age. 

 -PI. "Wright, i. 112, Bot. Mex. Bound. 92. Rocky banks, S. W. Texas, Wriijht, Parry, 

 Palmer. (Adj. Mex.) 



Z. hlspida, GRAY. Herbaceous and branched or many-stemmed from a barely liguescent 

 base or root, strigose-hispid, about 2 feet high : branches terminated by solitary long- 

 peduncled heads : leaves sessile or nearly so, lanceolate or the lower rhomboid-lanceolate, 

 acute or acuminate and with acute or cimeate base, irregularly more or less serrate, some- 

 times with a pair of coarser salient teeth or lobes above the base : involucre biserial ; the 

 outer bracts more loose and foliaceous, lanceolate from a broader base, as long as the oblong 

 inner ones : rays 7 to 9, orange-yellow, barely half-inch long : corolla-lobes puberulent-cilio- 

 late : akeues obovate, either narrowly or (when well developed) broadly winged, or sometimes 

 winged only near the summit, appearing obcordate, the pappus in the centre of* the notch, 

 consisting of a somewhat elevated cupule of united firm squamellae and one or two (or in 

 the ray 3) variable awns, these occasionally abortive or little exceeding the squamellaj ; usu- 

 ally an appressed fleshy scale or protuberance on each side of the base of the akeue. Proc. 

 Am. Acad. xix. 10. Wedelia hispida, HBK. Nov. Gen. & Spec. iv. 214, t. 371 (poor details, 

 from flowers only) ; Bot. Reg. t. 543 (details copied from HBK.) ; DC. Prodr. v. 539, excl. 

 syn. Cav. ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 370. Stemmodontia s<:aberrima, Cass. Diet. xlvi. 407. 

 LipochcEta ( Catomenia) Texana, Torr. & Gray, FI. ii. 357 ; Gray, PI. Lindh. ii. 229. Zexmenia 

 Tea-awn, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 112. Wir1(]<-nia Tc.ntixi, Schultz Bip. in Seem. Bot. Herald, 

 304. Dry ground, common in Texas. (Mex.) 



Z. podocephala. Herbaceous from a lignescent root, 2 or 3 feet high, rough-hirsute or 

 hispidulous : stems with few and slender branches, terminated by solitary long-peduucled 

 heads : leaves ovate, nearly sessile by a rounded base, obtuse or acute, serrate, thinnish, 

 very veiny (the larger 3 or 4 inches long) : head and involucre nearly of the preceding, but 

 corolla-lobes hispidulous : akenes obovate, with narrow at length callous wings, more or less 

 confluent with the rather long awns; the intermediate squamellse small and distinct, abso- 

 lutely wanting in the original specimens of Wright, on which was founded Verbesina podo- 

 ceplia/a, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 92, and of Schott, but obvious in specimens of Rothrock and 

 Lemmon. S. Arizona. 



109. VERBESfNA, L. partly, Less. (Unmeaning name.) American 

 herbaceous or more or less shrubby plants ; with heads of yellow or rarely white 

 flowers. --Benth. & Hook. Gen. PL ii. 379, with part of Actinomeris, Verbesina, 

 Ximenesia, DC. 



1. VERBESIN^RIA, DC. Heads narrow, mostly small, cymosely clustered or 

 paniculate : involucre imbricated in two or more series, the bracts not elongated- 

 foliaceons : rays (rarely wanting) few or several, styliferous and usually fertile : 



