Lxxi. co:mposit,t:. 03 



52. LAUN^A, Cass. 



(MiCEOEHY^'cnus, Less.) 

 Perennial glabrous herbs usually with yellow juice. Leaves mostly 

 radical, sinuately-lobed or pinnatifid ; margins often with cartilaginous 

 or subspinous teeth. Heads pedunculate or subsessile, solitary, fascicled, 

 racemose or paniculate, homogamous ; flowers all ligulate, yellow. 

 Involucre campanulate or cylindric ; bracts oc - seriate, imbricate, often 

 with scarious margins ; innermost bracts subequal ; the outer gradually 

 shorter, the outermost often very short. lleceptacle flat, naked. 

 Corollas ligulate, truncate and 5-toothed at the apex. Anther-bases 

 sagittate, with acute or short!}' setaceo-acuminate auricles. Style-arms 

 slender. Pappus copious ; hairs <X) - seriate, simple, very slender, white, 

 a few inner sometimes longer and stronger, all connate at the base into 

 a deciduous ring. Achenes narrow, usually columnar, not contracted 

 at the base or apex, truncate at both ends, sometimes winged, 4-5- 

 ribbed. — Distrib. Europe (Mediterranean region), East Indies, Africa, 

 and the Canary Islands ; species about 20. 



Achene3 not winged. 



Heads terminal on the panieulately branched flowei-ing stems. 1. L. chondrilloidcs. 

 Heads more or less racemose or fascicled ou the llowering 

 stem or its branches. 



Stems and branches not rooting at the nodes 2. L. midicaulis. 



Stems and branches rooting at the nodes 3. L. pinnatifiJa. 



Achenes winged 4. L. glomcrata. 



1. Launsea chondrilloides, IIool: f. FI. B. I. v. 3 (1881) p. 415. 

 Perennial, glabrous, or nearly so ; stem erect, paniculately branched, 

 lladical leaves rosulate, 3-5 in. long, narrow, runcinate-pinnatifid ; 

 lobes numerous, unequal, irregularly and acutely toothed. Cauline 

 leaves sessile, auricled, irregularly toothed or pinnatifid. Flowering 

 branches few or many, G-18 in. long, stout, dichotomously branched, 

 with small leafy bracts at the forks. Heads terminal, ^-1 in. long, 

 cylindric or ovoid ; peduncles bracteate. Invol.-bracts glabrous, 3- or 

 4-seriate ; the outer ovate, acute, subcordate, much shorter than the 

 inner ; innermost sometimes reaching | in. long, linear-lanceolate, acute, 

 membranous, ciliolate at the apex. Pappus soft, white, longer than the 

 achenes, the outer hairs numerous, slender, the inner hairs much longer, 

 reaching nearly i in. long, rigid, and much stouter than the outer. 

 Achenes i— ^ in. long, narrowly oblong, truncate at both ends, strongly 

 ribbed, the ribs slightly papillose. Microrliynchus cJiondrilloides, C. B. 

 Clarke, Comp. Ind, p. 277 (not of Sch.-Bip.). JSonchus CandoUeanus, 

 Jaub. & Spach, Illust. PI. Orient, v. 3, p. 110, t. 279; Aitch. Pb. & 

 Sind PI. p. 82. 



Rare. Sind : StocJiS, 715 I ; sandy shore near Karachi, Bahell, 47 I — DisxraB. 

 India (Paujab) ; Afghanistan, Persia, Arabia, Egypt. 



2. Launsea nudicaulis, IJooh f. Fl. B. I. v. 3 (18S1) p. 41G. 

 Glabrous, (j-24 in. high, branched. Leaves 2-10 by l-.'i in., mostly 

 radical ; lower leaves obovate-oblong, pinnatifid, Avith rounded or very 

 obtuse segments, spinulose on the margins with white cartilaginous 

 teeth ; cauline leaves distant, few, sessile, narrowly oblong, pinnatifid. 

 Elowering stems decumbent or spreading, irregularly branched. Heads 

 |-| in. long, cjlindric, remotely subracemose along the branc lies, shortly 



