Composites. 3 



Open places and roadsides in upper montane zone ; rather rare. 

 About Nuwara Eliya abundant. Fl. April, May; white, anth. and bracts 

 dark purple. 



Endemic. 



Very close to D. Leschenaulttt, Coult. of the Nilgiris (Wight, 111. t. 

 130), and scarcely differing in the form of the bracts. I consider that 

 Thvvaites was probably right in uniting them. 



LXX.— COMPOSIT.^. 



Herbs or shrubs (very rarely trees), 1. alt. (rarely opp.), with- 

 out stip. ; fl. very small, regular or irregular, bi- or unisexual, 

 sessile, with or without bractlets, closely packed on the dilated 

 summit of the peduncle {receptacle) to form a head which is 

 enclosed in or surrounded by an involucre of bracts; cal.-tube 

 adnate to ov., limb usually of hairs {pappus), or of a few 

 bristles or scales or quite absent; cor. (absent in fern. fl. of 

 Xanthiuni) either tubular, with 5 valvate lobes, or ligulate, 

 i.e., split down one side and everted with the lobes more or 

 less completely connate (when all the fl. in a head are tubular 

 it is said to be discoid, when the outer ones or all are ligulate 

 it is rayed); stam. 5, inserted in cor.-tube, fil. free, anth. con- 

 nate into a tube (except in Xanthiuni) ; ov. i -celled, crowned 

 with an epigynous disk, with a solitary erect ovule, style bifid ; 

 fruit an achene, crowned by the pappus ; embryo straight, 

 no endosperm. 



This immense and well-defined Order contains about ten per cent, of 

 all known flowering plants. It is especially characteristic of dry and 

 warm temperate countries, and is less represented in moist Tropical 

 regions than in any other parts of the world. In Ceylon the proportion 

 is reduced to less than three and a half per cent., and the Order, instead 

 of standing at the head of the list for numbers, comes eighth. We have 

 but 78 species, and the majority of those found in the low country are 

 common weeds (many, doubtless, introduced) ; were it not for the great 

 abundance of some of these, the Family would indeed be inconspicuous 

 here. In the montane region, however, it is different ; here occur 52 

 species, and of these 34 are restricted to it, including 6 species of 

 Vernonia, 8 of A?taphalts, 5 of Senecio, 2 of Gymira, and 4 of Bluniea, 

 and single species of Myriactis, Lagenophora, Helichrysum, Chryso- 

 gonuni, Laggera, Ceniipcda, Emilia, Notonia, and Crepis. In the dry 

 region are 2)1) species, of which 9 are restricted to it : Grangea, Erigeron, 

 Bltmiea (2 species), Blcpharispermum, Glossogyiie, Laggera aurita. 



