Sphenoclea. 947 
Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. d@’Eg., p. 102 no. 669. -—- Sphenoclea 
Pongatium DC. Prodrom. VU, p.548. — Boiss. Flor. Or. HI, p.963. 
An erect glabrous annual, 30 cm to 1,20 m high, with a stout 
fleshy slightly branched stem. Leaves alternate, linear-lanceolate, 
acute, entire, from 2—12 em long, according to the vigour of the 
plant. Flowers greenish yellow, about 5 mm in diameter, in dense 
bracteate spikes from 2—6 cm long. — Flow. March to April. 
N. d. Rosetta; Damietta; in rice-fields. 
Local name: hash ishel-farras (Schweinfurth). 
Also common in marshy places in Tropical Africa, Asia and America. 
112. Compositae. 
Known by having the flowers in a head, surrounded by an in- 
volucre (forming an compound flower of the older botanists), and 
syngenesious anthers. — Flowers either perfect, polygamous, or 
monoecious, or rarely dioecious, or some neutral. Corolla gamope- 
talous (monopetalous). Stamens 5, or sometimes 4, inserted on the 
tube of the corolla alternate with its lobes: filaments generally 
distinct: anthers syngenesious, i. e. united into a tube. Ovary 1- 
celled, with a solitary erect anatropous ovule: style one, 2-cleft or 
2-lobed at the apex, the lobes or branches of the styles bearing 
stigmas in the form of marginal lines on their inner face. Fruit 
an achene. Seed destitute of albumen, filled by the straight embryo. 
— Calyx with tube investing and incorporated with the ovary, its 
limb either wanting, or in the form of a border or crown, or of 
teeth scales, awns, bristles, etc., surmounting, the ovary: it is called 
a pappus, whatever be its form or texture. Corolla epigynous, either 
strap-saped (ligulate) or tubular; in the former case the 5 or 4 
petals of which it is composed are sometimes indicated by thee 
teeth or notches at the apex of the ligule or expanded portion: in 
the latter case 5-lobed or occasionally 3-lobed, the lobes valvate 
in the bud, the veins of the tube forking at the sinuses and bor- 
dering the lobes. Anthers 2-celled, introrse, opening on the inner 
face; the pollen brushed out of the tube by the lengthening of the 
style, some portion of which, or of its branches, in staminiferous 
flowers usually is beset externally or tipped with a rough bristly 
or papillose surface. Heads homogamous, i. e. with all their flowers 
alike or heterogamous, i. e. of more than one sort of flowers. Homo- 
gamous heads are sometimes completely liguliflorous, i. e. all the 
flowers with strap-shaped or ligulate corolla, and in this case all 
bisexual, sometimes discoid, i. e. with no ligulate flowers. Hetero- 
gamous heads are commonly radiate, i. e. the outermost or marginal 
60* 
