COMPOSITE. 217 



Vcrnonia pcctiniformis Wight; Herh. Prop. 137Q!; 

 F.B.I. as of DC, iii 239, V 36. A shrubby plant with 

 broad finely serrate leaves and wide corymbs of flower- 

 heads, distinguished among our species by the smooth, 

 blunt, not narrow bracts and rather long peduncles. 



Stem terete, striate, pubescent or glabrous. Leaves 

 ovate acute, very closely serrate, narrowed abruptly to 

 the J^-inch stalk : nerves many, % inch apart, conspicu- 

 ously parallel. Corymbs 3 to 5 inches, by forking of the 

 stem and upper branches ; bracts at the forkings very 

 small or absent ; ultimate peduncles J^ to J^ inch. Heads 

 as long. Involucral bracts many-seriate, imbricate, 

 lengthening evenly from the lower and outermost to the 

 inner. Corolla % inch, its tube Ye inch. Achenes ten- 

 ribbed, densely glandular but not hairy. Pappus J^ inch. 

 t. 151. Wight Ic. t. 1077; Sp. Nilg. t. 103. 



Nilgiris : near Ootacamund, etc., common. Flowers from 

 April onwards. Also Ceylon. Fy son 2212, 



Vcrnonia monosis Benth.; Herb. Wight Prop. 1376!; 

 F.B.I, as var wightiana of V. arborea Ham. 3 ; iii 239, 

 V37."^ A tree, conspicuous in the Nilgiri sholas of April 

 and May as a huge white cone or ovoid crown of pappus 

 and pale purple flowers with the scent of Heliotrope. 



Tree up to 40 feet, with trunk 18 inches thick, but 

 often smaller; branches round with narrow leaf-scars 

 extending right across; youngest parts, underside of 

 leaves and inflorescence densely tomentose. Leaf-stalks 

 % to M inch, broadened at the base : blade elliptic entire, 

 when dry with the smell of fresh hay (not cumurin), 

 rounded and often oblique at the base, with about nine 

 pairs of main veins. Flower-heads almost umbelled,the 

 umbels again compounded into rounded masses at the 

 ends of the branches forming leafy panicles 5 to 6 inches 

 high and 4 to 5 inches wide, terminating the year's 



