Lxxi. coMrosiT.i;. 25 



15. PLUCHEA, Cass. 



Shrubs or undershrubs (rarely herbs) tomentose or glutinous. Leaves 

 alternate. Heads small, in terminal leafless corymbs, or large and sub- 

 solitary, heterogamous, disciform, white, yellow or lilac; outer flowers 

 $ , fertile, go -seriate; disk-flowers ^ , few, sterile. Involucre ovoid or 

 broadly campanulate ; bracts ovate or lanceolate, usually broad, dry, 

 rigid. Eeceptacle flat, naked. Corollas of 5 flowers filiform, shorter 

 than their styles, 3-fid or minutely toothed at the apex, those of $ 

 flowers regular, tubular, with a slightly enlarged limb, 5-fid at the apex. 

 IStyle-arms of ^ flowers filiform, entire or 2-iid. Anther-bases sagittate, 

 the cells tailed. Pappus-hairs slender, 1 -seriate, free, or in the sterile 

 achenes very many, more or less connate at the base. — Distkib. Tropical 

 and subtropical countries ; species about 30. 



Heads in compound corymbs. 

 Outer invol. -bracts ovate, acute. 



Leaves acutely serrate-dentate 1. P. tomcntosa. 



Leaves entire or nearly so 2. P. WaUichiana. 



Outer invol. -bracts oblong, rounded, very obtuse 3. P. lanceolata. 



Heads subsolitary. 



Outer invol. -bracts very small, lanceolate-subulate .. 4. P. arguta. 



1. Pluchea tomentosa, DC. in Wight, Contnb. (1834) p. 16. A 

 shrub 4-10 ft. high ; stems and branches terete, not wiuged, striate, 

 moi*e or less pubescent below, glandular-pubescent in the upper parts. 

 Leaves sessile, sub-amplexicaul, often auricled at the base, 1-3 by f-l| 

 in., broadly obovate, obtuse or subacute, acutely serrate-dentate, more 

 or less pilose above, softly pubescent beneath. Flowers in compound 

 many-headed corymbs which are terminal or from the upper axils. 

 Involucre campanulate ; outer bracts short, ovate, acute, slightly 

 pubescent ; the innermost linear-oblong, acute, ciliate near the apex. 

 Eeceptacle glabrous. Pappus minutely barbellate. Achenes obscurely 

 angled. 



Eitchie gives 4 ft. as the height of the shrub, while Dalzell in a note 

 attached to a specimen in Herb. Kew. gives it as 10 ft, PI. B. I. v. 3, 

 p. 272 ; C. B. Clarke, Comp. Ind. p. 94 ; Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. 

 v. 11 (1898) p. 648.— Plowers : Dec.-Peb. 



KoNKAN : N. & S. Konkan, Law]; Thai Ghat, Edgeworthl Deccan : Bijapur, 

 Woodrow; Chakan, Dahell \ S. M. Country: Fort ditch, Belgauni, RifcJde, 1822! 

 Kanaka: Law'.; Haliyal, Ritchie, 1822! Sind: Stocks I — Distrib. India (Bengal, 

 Central India, W. Peninsula). 



2. Pluchea WaUichiana, DC. Prodr. v. 5 (183G) p. 451. A tall 

 shrub ; stem and branches not winged, terete, striate, the upper portions 

 viscous-pubescent. Leaves sessile, 1-2| by |-1^ in., rigid, elliptic-oblong 

 or obovate, obtuse or subacute, often apiculate, usually entire, or some- 

 times faintly toothed, pubescent on both surfaces ; nerves prominent. 

 Heads numerous, |-| in. in diam., in compound corymbs ; pedicels 

 glandular-hairy. Involucre campanulate ; outer bracts short, ovate- 

 oblong, acute, pubescent ; the innermost bracts linear, acute, pubescent 

 at the apex. Achenes obscurely angled, the angles silvery-white, 

 scarcely pilose. PI. B.I. v. 3, p. 272; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 126 ; C. B. Clarke, 

 Comp. Ind. p. 94. P. WallicJiii, Woodr. in Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 

 (1898) p. 648.— Plowers : Peb. 



