1941 



* MORA'A nitida. 



The Beautifnl Murnn. 



SYNGENESIA POLYGAIMIA .EQUALIS. 



Nat. ord. Asterace^, or CoMPOSiTiE. 



MORN A. Capitulum homogamum. Involucrum coloratura, exsuccum, 

 iinbricatum, squamis omnibus petiolatis ! glaberrimis, Receptacuhtm planum, 

 nudum. Corolla hermaphroditEe, infundibulares. Antherie basi bicalcaratse. 

 Achmnia glabra, scabriuscula, compressa, long^ rostrata. Pappus scaber, uni- 

 seriatus, setaceus, tequalis, basi pubescens. Caules apice cymosi, foliati. 



Morna nilida. 



Caules erecli, subsimplices, pubescentes, versus fastigium arachnoideo- 

 lanati. Folia erecta, linearia, basi paulh latioru, mucromilata, pubescentia. 

 Capitula cymosa, homogcuna, multijlora, pedunculis ad involucrum usque 

 folialis. Involucrum hemispharicum , polyphyllum, imhricatvm , multiseria- 

 tum ; squaviis intense aureis, acutissimis, serrulatis, Innge petiolatis ; exte- 

 rioTibus ovato-lanceolatis, intimis linenribus apice cuneatis, omnibus basi 

 lanatis. Uece^taculum planum, 7iudum. Flosculi homogami, infundibulares, 

 glabri, 5-dentati. Ovarium levissime pubescens, compressum, longe rostra- 

 turn. Pappus setaceus, uniseriatus, scaber, basi pilosus. 



* Morna, one of the heroines of the Northern romances, was a beautiful 

 lady, confined in a golden hall, guarded by a thousand golden lances, and attended 

 night and day by knights, whose sole office was to do her bidding in all things, 

 except allowing her to escape from her splendid tiiraldom. Her court could 

 only be held where the sunbeams and the summer breeze had the freest access. 

 During her residence on earth, she was worshipped as a divinity, and when she 

 disappeared, her palace, her knights, and her lances vanished with her. She is 

 described as having been a person of the most kind and gentle disposition, but of a 

 melancholy and somewhat imperious temperament; her figure was noble and com- 

 manding, her voice melodious, and her smile so resistless, that the fiercest animals 

 were tamed by merely looking on her. See Viseling de reb. Scand. orat. p. 23. 

 After her, various heroines of northern romance have been named Morna or Morni ; 

 in the present instance the ingenious reader will have no difficulty in tracing a 

 resemblance between this mystical personage and the plant before him. 



