BY THE REV. J. E. TENISON-WOODS. 15 



of the largest, the most distinct, most uniform, and therefore the 

 most natural of all the flowering plants, namely, the Composite. 

 The Malayan region is certainly influenced in some way so as to 

 almost exclude the order from its vast forest-clad plains and hills. 

 It is at once the poorest in CoMPOSiTiE, and those genera which are 

 seen are destitute of any interest or peculiarity. There is not a 

 single endemic genus, and every one of the representatives of the 

 order in Malaysia spreads more or less over the Indian continent. 

 A large proportion are little more than weeds which spring up 

 rapidly and thickly where a forest has been cleared, and cultivated 

 ground abandoned. Amongst these are Ageratum conyzoides, Ele- 

 phantopus scaber, Spilanthes grandijlora, Crepis japonica, Blumea 

 hieracifolia (very common), and Vernonia cinerea. These are 

 ubiquitous weeds ; they have taken thorough possession of the 

 waste places in Malaysia. Bentham, in his essay on the Com- 

 POSIT.E, says that if the known CoMPOsiTiE of the Indian Archi- 

 pelago were reduced to our ordinary standard they would not 

 probably extend beyond 110 or 120 species. Beccari's collection 

 of Sarawak plants made in Borneo in 1849 contained only six 

 Composite. 



The principal genera of a higher grade of Composite prevalent 

 in tropical Asia are Vernonia, Blmnea and allies, Conyza and 

 allies, Grangea and allies, Gnaphalioid Inuloidese, and Senecionidese. 

 No others can count ten species ; the most remarkable among 

 them being a few Mutisiacese (Leucomeris, Dichoma, Ainslice.a, 

 Catamixis, Gerhera), mostly allied to South African species. 

 Ainslicea is a special type, the only genus of thistles which is 

 chiefly tropical. But the Mutisiacese are thistles of a peculiar 

 kind. There are three large tribes of Compos it^e not found 

 at all in the flora of Malaysia, though largely represented in 

 America and South Africa. These are the Helenioidese (Gail- 

 lardia, Tagetes), Calendulacese (Marigolds) and Arctotidese. Yet 

 there are some introduced weeds of this order.* 



*See Bentham, " On the Classification, History and Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Compositse." Jour. Linn. Soc. Botany, XIII. (1873) p. 547. 



