oG LXXI. CO^El'OSITvi:; 



sagittate ; tails slender, consisting of a small bundle of fine hairs which 

 cling together. Pappus-scales 2. ovate, ribbed at the back, the rib 

 produced into an apiculus. Achenes yg— g in. long by about j^ ^^' 

 broad at the apex (including the wing), flat, obovoid, notched and with 

 a few small teeth at either side of the notch, broadly winged on each of 

 the sides and sometimes with a rib on each of the flat faces Mhich are 

 sparsely studded with short stout white hairs. Fl. B. I. v. 3, p. 291 ; 

 Grab. Cat. p. 96 ; Dalz. & Gibs. p. 126 ; Eoxb. Cor. PI. v. 1, p. 64, t. 93 ; 

 Wight, Icon. t. 1102; C. B. Clarke, Comp. Ind. p. 116; Woodr. in 

 Journ. Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1898) p. 648.— Flowers : Sept.-Jan. Veen. 

 MdM. 



Roxburgh has apparently taken the pappus-scales to be a partinl 

 involucre, but they are inserted at the top of the achene. Roxburgh's 

 drawing is incorrect as to the style-arms also. Wight shews these 

 correctly. 



XoNKAN : Lmnhert ! Deccan : Poona, Woodrow ! ; Kirkee, J. G. Woodroif ! 

 S. M. Country : Belgaum, Ritchie, 409 ! ; Hubli, Hohenhaclcer, 744 ! — Distrib. 

 Tliroughout tlie greater part of India in rice-fields. 



26. LAGASCA, Cav. 



Rigid villous or subglabrous herbs. Leaves opposite or the upper 

 alternate, entire or toothed. Heads 1-flowered, in leafy balls which are 

 solitary terminal and peduncled, or in corymbose panicles. Flowers 

 all ^ , fertile, white, red or yellow. Involucre tubular ; bracts 5, 

 connate. Receptacle small. Corolla regular ; tube short ; limb elongate, 

 cylindric or dilated above, 5-fid. Anther-bases sagittate ; auricles 

 obtuse. Style-arms elongate, subacute, hairy. Pappus a toothed or 

 fimbriate cup or ring. Achenes cuneate, compressed or 3-angled, tip 

 rounded. — Distrib. Mexico and Central America; species 7. 



The genus was named Lagasca by Cavanilles, not Lagascea. 



1. Lagasca mollis, Cav. An Anal. Cienc. Nat. v. 6 (1803) p. 332, 

 t. 44. A tall slender herb ; stem and branches pale, slender, striate, 

 terete, pubescent. Leaves 1-2 by 5-I5 in., ovate, acute or acuminate, 

 crenate, silky beneath and with somewhat coarser hairs above, base 

 shortly cuneate ; petioles |-1 in. long, densely pubescent. Heads in 

 clusters (resembling simple heads), |-1 in. in diam., silky-villous, with 

 an involucre of elliptic acute or acuminate very silky leaves ; flowers 

 white ; peduncles long, slender, pubescent. luvol. -bracts 5-jV ^'^- ^^^Si 

 connate for about g-way up into a tube, lanceolate, very acute, ciliate. 

 Corolla-tube short ; limb o-fid, the segments linear, acute, about as long 

 as the tube, pubescent outside near the tip. Style-arms long, hairy. 

 Pappus a short fimbriate cup. Achenes cuneate, jV in. long. Fl. B. 1. 

 v. 3, p. 302 ; Grab. Cat. p. 96 ; Dalz. & Gibs. Suppl." p. 46 ; C. B. Clarke, 

 Comp. Ind. p. 131 ; Trim. Fl. Ceyl. v. 3, p. 34 ; Woodr. in Journ. 

 Bomb. Nat. v. 11 (1898) p. 649.— Flowers nearly all the year. Vekn. 

 Jharvad. 



A native of Centi-al Americn, but completely naturalized in the Bombay Presidency, 

 especially in the Deccan, where it has, in the Poona districts, become a most trouble- 

 some weed, spreading rapidly and seriously interfering with the growth of the grass 

 in some talukas. 



