Dichrocefihala.'] CoMpOsUcB. 1 3 



A. viscosum, Forst. Nov. Gen. 45 (1776). 



Burm. Thes. 95. Fl. Zeyl. n. 310. Verbesina Laveitia, L. Sp. PI. 

 902. Lavejiia erecta, Willd., Moon Cat. 57. A. angiistifolium, Arn. 

 Pu?. 29. Thw. Enum. 162. C. P. 594. 



^Fl. B. Ind. iii. 242. Burm. Thes. t. 42. Wight, Ic. t. 1087 {A. lati- 

 foliuni). 



A large annual herb, stem 1-3 ft, stout, glabrous below, 

 very glandular-pubescent above, purple, branched in upper 

 part; 1. rather large, 3-6 in., broadly ovate, usually suddenly 

 narrowed into a long tapering base, acute, coarsely dentate- 

 serrate, glabrous or pubescent, 3-nerved at base, petiole 

 obscure ; heads somewhat drooping in very lax cymes, in- 

 volucre hemispherical, bracts linear-strap-shaped, obtuse, 

 slightly ciliate ; cor.-tube short, very glandular-hairy and 

 viscous outside, lobes very small ; style-arms twice as long 

 as cor., and very much exserted ; achene oblong, compressed, 

 4- or 5-ribbed, viscid, with numerous stalked glands, blackish- 

 brown, crowned with a narrow ring, from which the pappus 

 processes or glands are projected. 



Van /3, reticulatum, Clarke, I. c. 29. A. reticulatiim, DC, Wight, 

 Ic. t. 1088. 



L. thicker, with prominent reticulate venation, pubescent 

 beneath; inv.-bracts viscous-pubescent ; achene quite glabrous. 



Shady places, throughout the island; very common; var. /3 the 

 commoner form. Fl. all the year; purplish, the styles white. 



In all Tropical countries. 



Like other common Compositse, this presents much variation in the 

 form of the leaves, but the numerous species proposed are not worth 

 distinction even as varieties. I have never seen Arnott's A. migusti- 

 folhwi, described as having linear-lanceolate leaves. The achenes 

 adhere to surrounding objects by the very viscid stalked glands 

 (pappus). 



Ageratum conyzoides, L., is the most abundant and troublesome 

 annual weed in the island, occurring literally everywhere, but especially 

 in cultivated land. It is the ' White-weed ' or ' Goat-weed ' of planters, 

 Piimpidlu of the Tamil coolies, and Htilan-tala of the Sinhalese. It 

 is probably of S. American or W. Indian origin, but may have spread 

 throughout the Tropics by natural causes. There is a figure in Hook. 

 Exotic Flora, t. 15 (1823), where it is remarked that the plant is 'well 

 deserving of a place in every stove.' It is in Moon's Cat. p. 57. 



4. DICKROCEPKAIiA,^ DC. 



Annual, 1. alt., pinnatifid ; heads small, globose ; inv.- 

 bracts {qv^, in one row, very small, lanceolate, receptacle 



* From the heads bearing yellow fl. above and white ones beneath. 



