44 Flora of the Malayan Peninsula. 



oblong, its bracts few ; the outer one or two foliaceous, passing into the 

 flat scarious pales of the small receptacle. Ray-florets few, $ , ligulate, 

 with short broad 2-3-toothed lamina. Disk-florets ^ , tubular, regular, 

 the limb 4-toothed. Anthers syngenesious, their bases sub-entire. 

 Style-arms of ^ florets long, acute. Cypselas of ray-florets much 

 compressed dor^ally, smooth, their edges winged and with long teeth ; 

 those of the ^ few, narrower, compressed or trigonous often muri- 

 cate; pappus in both consisting of 2 (rarely more) bristles. — Distrib. 

 Species 2, tropical American, 1 also Asiatic and African. 



Synedrella nodiflora, Gaertn. Fruct. II. 456, t. 171, f. 7. An 

 erect dichotomous annual with terete wiry glabrous branches thicker 

 than a crow-quill ; all parts more or less scaberulous. Leaves mem- 

 branous, opposite, petiolate, ovate, acute, the base cuneate, the edges 

 serrate or crenate (sometimes obscurely so) ; main-nerves 3 or 4 pairs, 

 the lower pair long and bold, the others short and faint; both surfaces 

 minutely and sparsely strigose, and greenish when dry; length -75 to 

 3 in. ; breadth -3 to 1*25 in. ; petioles -1 to -4 in. often ciliate on the edges. 

 Heads -25 in. in diam., axillary, solitary or in small clusters, usually 

 sessile but sometimes on short peduncles ; inner bracts of the involucre 

 linear-lanceolate, shining. Cypselas of the inner flowers muricate, 

 with 2 unequal hispid pappus hairs longer than themselves and than 

 the corolla ; outer cypselas shorter, broader, smooth, black ; their 

 edges winged, deeply toothed, pale. Hook. Exot. Flora, t. 60 ; Clarke 

 Comp. Ind. 139 ; Hook. fil. Fl. Br. Ind. III. 308 ; Prain Bengal 

 Plants, 615. Verhesina nodiflora, Linn. Amoen. Acad. IV. 290. 



Near cultivation, common. 



19. BiDENS, Linn. 



Herbaceous, annual or perennial, sometimes scandent. Leaves 

 opposite, entire, irregularly lobed or 1-2-pinnatisect. Heads small and 

 corymbose or larger and sub- solitary, heterogamous and rayed. Ray- 

 florets in one series, neuter or rarely 2 , fertile, the corolla ligulate, 

 yellow or white, spreading, entire or somewhat toothed. Disk-florets 

 i , fertile, tube, cylindric, limb shortly 5-fid; occasionally homogamous 

 from the abortion of the ray-florets. Livohicre campanulate or sub- 

 hemispheric, its bracts in two series, often slightly connate below ; 

 the outer short herbaceous or long and leafy, the inner membranous ; 

 receptacle flat or convex ; its pales narrow, little concave. Anthers 

 entire or bluntly sagittate at the base. Style of ^ florets with arms 

 hirsute upwards and short acute or long apices. Cypselas dorsally 

 compressed or somewhat tetragonous, linear or cuneiform, often 

 narrowed but not beaked above ; pappus of 2 to 4 persistent, 

 254 



