Vi'coa.] Composites. 33 



apex, subacute, margins often reflexed, glabrous and bright 

 green above, very densely covered with pure white (rarely 

 cinnamomeous) cotton beneath, 3-5-veined ; heads shortly 

 stalked, flat-topped, densely crowded in numerous, large, 

 globose, peduncled fascicles which are combined to form a 

 large, corymbose, very cottony, terminal infl., bracts and 

 appendages very scarious and transparent, slightly exceeding 

 fl., very obtuse and rounded, cottony outside, the outer ones 

 broader and shorter ; achene hispid, pappus rough. 



Upper montane zone, on steep banks ; rather common. Fl. Nov.- 

 Feb. ; bright yellow. 



Also in the Nilgiris. 



Grows in drooping or pendulous masses. There are no sufficient 

 characters to separate the Ceylon plant (//. Hookeriamini) from the 

 Indian type, which is, however, usually a larger plant than ours. 



H. bracteaiuiii, Willd., a commonly cultivated Australian species in 

 gardens in the Hills, is often found about N. Eliya, &c., in a semi-wild 

 state. 



18. VZCOA, Cass. 



Annual, 1. alt. ; heads moderate-sized, terminal or axillary, 

 involucre cup -shaped, bracts in many rows, very narrow, 

 receptacle flat, naked, ray-fl. in one row, closely placed, ligu- 

 late, fem., disk-fl. numerous, small, tubular, bisexual ; anth.- 

 bases sagittate, tailed ; style-arms of bisexual fl. short, 

 truncate, flattened ; achene ovoid, not ribbed, hairs of pappus 

 rather scanty. — Sp. 6 ; 3 in Fl. B. Ind. 



V. auriculata, Cass, in Awt. Set. Nat. xvii. 33 (1829). Ran- 

 hiriya, 5. 



Burm. Thes. 124. Inula indica^ L., Moon Cat. 58. V. indica^ DC, 

 Thw. Enum. 164. C. P. 1757. 



Fl. B. Ind. iii. 297. Burm. Thes. t. 55, f. 2. Wight, Ic. t. 1148. 



Annual, stem erect, 1-2 ft., slender, stiff, slightly hairy, 

 with many long ascending branches in upper part ; 1. numerous, 

 sessile, 1-3 in., narrowly oblong, dilated at base and forming 

 rounded auricles, tapering to apex, serrate, rough with short 

 adpressed hair on both sides, pale beneath; heads solitary, on 

 long, terminal or axillary peduncles, about f in. wide, inv.- 

 bracts linear-setaceous, very acute, with membranous margins, 

 glabrous or very slightly hairy, outer ones shorter, ray-fl. 16-24, 

 cor. long, narrow, 3-toothed, spreading; achene sparsely hairy. 



Sandy ground and roadsides up to 4000 ft., but especially in the dry 

 low country; common. Fl. all the year; bright golden yellow. 

 Also throughout the Indian Peninsula. 



The neat symmetrical heads are much copied in native gold work. 

 PART III, D 



