COMPOSITE. 205 



but not near the flowers. Leaves opposite, clasping the 

 stem and the upper ones meeting round it to form cups : 

 lower pinnate or deeply pinnatifid, the terminal leaflet 

 much the largest and decurrent as also most of the others ; 

 lateral leaflets or segments obliquely obovate or oblong ; 

 lowest distant ; all coarsely toothed ciliate, hirsute or 

 almost glabrous underneath except on the nerves; thinly 

 pubescent above: lowest leaves very large, to 2 feet long ; 

 upper leaves smaller but otherwise similar. Flower- 

 heads 2 b}^ lJ4 inches long, peduncled, in loose cymes 

 from the axils of linear bracts. Involucral bracts 

 ovate-lanceolate, hairy : floral bracts strongly mucronate 

 and covered with hairs from tubercled bases. Flowers 

 white or yellowish; corolla tube shaggy at the base 

 with reflexed hairs ; lobes oblong, the two lower larger. 

 Stamens four, well exserted ; filaments white, anthers 

 purple. Style short at first, then exserted, flattened at the 

 stigma. Fruiting head almost spherical, bristling with 

 the long points of the stiff floral bracts : the involucral 

 bracts depressed, t. 147. Wight 111. ii. t. 130. 



On the open downs above Kodaikanal. Flowers from June 

 to September. Nilgiris. Not elsewhere. Jy soft ^04^. Bourne 

 245. 



The absence of prickles makes this plant, at first sight, appear much 

 more like the English Scabious than Teasel. 



COMPOSIT/E. 



In this family the flowers are individually small, but 

 massed into, usually flat, heads. The head is surrounded 

 and enclosed in bud by an involucre or covering of bracts, 

 which when the head is open forms a cylindrical tube 

 or hemispherical cup surrounding the flowers at least at 

 their base. The shape and character of these involucral 

 bracts are of some importance (every head of a plant 



