464 A FLORA OF MANILA 
connate with the style into a column. Ovary inferior, 2-celled; stigma at 
the apex of the column; ovules many. Fruit a 1- or 2-celled, 2-valved 
capsule, the valves cohering at the base and apex, or only at the base. 
Genera 6, species about 130, mostly in Australia, few in Antartic America, 
still fewer in India and Malaya, 1 in the Philippines. 
4 
STYLIDIUM Swartz 
Small, slender, glabrous, annual herbs. Flowers axillary, sessile. Calyx 
5-lobed, the lobes usually more or less united in two lips. Corolla irregular, 
5-lobed, 4 lobes suberect in 2 pairs, and one smaller, recurved. Staminal 
column elongated, apex at first deflexed, elastically reflexed when irritated. 
Capsules small, elongated. (From the Greek “column,” in allusion to the 
connate style and stamens.) : 
Species 103, nearly all Australian, 1 extending to the Philippines, 3 in 
India and China. 
1. S. alsinoides R. Br. ° 
Slender, glabrous, erect or spreading, simple or irregularly branched, 
6 to 15cm high. Leaves sessile, ovate, opposite, or the lower ones alternate, 
acute or acuminate, 3 to 6 mm long. Flowers solitary, alternating, 1 at 
each node in the_axil of an often reduced leaf. Calyx-tube long, slender. 
Corolla-lobes slightly exceeding the calyx-lobes, apparently pink. Capsule 
slender, 1 to 1.5 em long. 
In open, wet, grasslands, rice paddies, etc., San Lazaro, fl. in the rainy 
reason; of local occurrence in the Philippines. Northern Australia and 
Queensland. 
136. COMPOSITAE! (COMPOSITE OR SAMBONG FAMILY) 
Erect or spreading herbs, herbaceous or woody vines, shrubs, or very 
rarely trees. Leaves alternate, rarely opposite or whorled, simple, entire, 
toothed, or variously lobed, or compound. Flowers few to very numerous 
in close heads which are solitary, or in racemes or panicles, each head 
with an involucre of bracts surrounding the flowers, the receptacle pitted 
or nearly smooth, naked or paleate. Calyx-tube united with the 1-celled 
ovary, the the limb none, or of hairs (pappus), scales, or bristles, crowning 
the summit and usually persistent in fruit. Corolla strap-shaped or tu- 
bular, 3- to 5-toothed or lobed. Stamens 4 or 5, inserted on the corolla- 
tube, their anthers united. Ovary 1-celled, 1-ovuled; style 2-cleft or entire. 
Fruit a dry, indehiscent achene, usually crowned by hairs, bristles, or scales. 
The largest family of flowering plants, comprising about 900 genera, 
and over 14,000 species, in all parts of the world, but chiefly in temperate 
regions, 51 genera and about 110 species in the Philippines. 
The flowers may be perfect or polygamous, monoecious, or dioecious. 
Flowers with a strap-shaped (ligulate) corolla are called ray-flowers, and 
these may be confined to the outer one or several rows, or all the flowers 
may be ligulate; a head containing in part or all ray-flowers is called 
radiate. The tubular or campanulate flowers compose the disk, and a head 
that contains no ray-flowers is called discoid. When a head contains two 


* Fora consideration of the Philippine species of this family see Elmer, 
A. D. E., “Manual of the Philippine Compositae.” Leafl. Philip. Bot. 1 
(1906) 83-186. 
