COMPOSITi© 71 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Florets yellow. Leaves mostly radical . . B. hieracifolia. 

 Florets purple, heads numerous, strongly scented . . . 



B. neilgherrensis. 



Florets purple, heads few. Very woolly herbs. Leaves three 



times as long as broad B. sp. 



Blumca neilgherrensis Hook. /. ; Vol. I p. 225. This 

 seems to be the hill form of B. wightiana DC. differing 

 from it in little except the purple instead of yellow 

 florets. It varies much in habit, being small or large, 

 unbranched or copiously branched, t. 382. 



Blumca hieracifolia DC. ; Vol. I p. 225. t. 383. 



Chiefly near water, though not in marshy ground. 



Blumca hieracifolia DC. var. Whole plant very 

 cottony. Radical leaves if present large up to 3 by I inch, 

 obovate, and forming a rosette, but usually absent at 

 times of flowering ; stem leaves 2 by 34 inch oblong, 

 elliptic, acute, with clasping base. Heads in a compact 

 mass or rounded corymbs terminating the stem, and the 

 branches (if any). Florets purple. Achenes five-angled, 

 scabrid on the angles. Pappus white. 



Pulneys : in hollow on the downs in semi-swaiiipy ground. 



Form I. Stem 5 to 12 inches. Heads woo)y, but lower 

 leaves and stem thinly tomentose. Leaves 2 to 3 by J^ to 

 % inch. t. 384. Fy son ^22. Bourne \ 110 ^^xoh^Vj. 



Form 2. Stem 12 to 15 inches. All very woolly. Leaves 

 2 by 54 to I inch. t. 385. Fyson 4344. Fischer 2^61 fide 

 V. Narayanasawmi (Sibpur). 



Form I approaches B. hieracifolia cypica, in which species these plants 

 quoted above are included by both Kew and Calcutta (Sibpur): but both 

 forms differ in the purple not yellow florets, and in the absence almost 

 always of any rosette of leaves. Few people seeing these two growing near 

 Kodaikanal would suspect them of being the same species as B. hieracifolia. 



LAGGERA. 



See VoL I p. 226. 



Laggera alata Schultz : Vol. I p. 226. t. 386. 



