Il6 COMPOSITE. 



Gen. Dist. South Indian hills at high levels. 



Considered by some a form of V. cinerea Less.^ but very different from 

 that plant as it grows on the Madras plains. Close to V. candoUeana 

 W. &■' A., but in that species the outer pappus scales erect and nearly 

 half as long as the achene, and the latter glabrous. 



Vernonia cormorinensis Smith ; V 32.* A well 

 branched dense shrub, peculiar in its arched leaves 

 densely clothed underneath with yellowish hairs 



Shrub 4 to 5 feet high and 5 to / feet broad ; stems 

 purplish brown and the whole plant up to the involucres 

 thickly coated with yellowish hairs : leaf scars prominent 

 as blunt crescents with three dark scars of the vascular 

 bundles. Leaf-stalks ^ inch : blades elliptic, up to 5 by 

 2 inches, very occasionally with shallow teeth ; pubescent 

 above and roughened by the impressed veins ; lighter 

 below and coated with yellowish hairs especially on the 

 nerves, but not white ; curving downwards with rounded 

 backs. Flower-heads in dense terminal corymbose pani- 

 cles 6 inches across, the branches of which have the same 

 yellowish hairs, and also here and there linear scales 

 with bulbous bases : ultimate peduncles Yz toVz inch. 

 Involucres V^hyY inch : bracts three-seriate, pubescent, 

 with a few linear scales at the base ; the outer greenish, 

 the inner longer and tipped with purplish brown. Florets 

 exserted % inch, purple. Stylar arms subulate. Achenes 

 1/12 inch, five-angled and obscurely ten-ribbed, covered 

 with white glistening points : pappus white, 1/5 inch, 

 with a ring of much shorter hairs, 1/50 inch, outside. 

 1. 150. 



On the open downs. Pulneys : above Kodaikanal by road- 

 sides, always in dense clumps. Fyso?t 2155. Boiir?ie 230, 416, 

 1013, 1013,* 2687, i35i> 1375- 



I have not seen Smith's type plant [Bot. Survey of India IV (191 1), 

 283], but have been told by men who have seen it that mine is that plant. 

 Certain differences between this description and his may be put down to 

 his being made on a single dried specimen, while the above was done in 

 the field. The curved backs of the leaves, not mentioned by Smith are 

 very characteristic. In bud the leaves are erect with incurved edges and 

 tip and have a thick coating of hairs. The figure shows this well. 



