Gymnarrhena. — Lasiopogon. 475 
554. (14.) Gymnarrhena Desf. 
Heads many-flowered, discoid. Involucre many-rowed, scales 
boat-shaped, coriaceous, rigid. Receptacle convex, bristly at margin. 
Marginal flowers pistillate, in many rows, each subtended by a 
scale; the corolla slender, tubular, 3-toothed; the pappus in several 
rows, the outer consisting of scabrous bristles, the inner of 7—9, 
lanceolate-linear, acuminate pales; style 2-lobed; achenes obconical, 
villous. Central flowers few, minute, abortive, staminate, not 
subtended by pales; the corolla funnel-shaped; pappus in 1 row of 
lanceolate, acuminate, ciliated pales; style simple, club-shaped, acute, 
papillose; akenes filiform, glabrous. — Herbs, stemless or nearly so, 
with crowded heads. 
A small genus in the Sahara region. 
1339. Gymnarhena micrantha Desf. Mem. Mus. Paris IV (1818), 
p.1 tab. 1. — Boiss. Flor. Or. HI, p. 240. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Il. 
Flor. dEg., p.88 no.542. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. d’'Eg., 
Supplem. p. 760. — Aschers. Flor. Rhinocol., p.798 no. 138. — 
Frankia Schimperi Hochst. and Steud. in Schimp. Plant. Arab. — 
Cryptadia EKuphratensis Chesney Narr. Kuphorb., p. 441 tab. 95. — 
An annual plant, 2—3 cm high, or sometimes somewhat more. 
Leaves linear-lanceolate, 10 cm long, acutish, with dilated, membranous 
base, rosetted around the sessile. clustered heads, and much longer 
than the cluster. Scales of the involucre glossy, louger than the 
flowerets, mucronulate. — Flow. March to April. 
M. ma. Mariut; Behig; Alexandria-West. — M. p. El-“Arish. 
— D.i. Wady-el-‘Arish. — D. a. sept. Galala. 
Local name: khirsheyf (Ascherson). 
Also known from Spain and Arabia Petraea to Mesopotamia, 
555. (15.) Lasiopogon Cass. 
Heads many-flowered, discoid, heterogamous. Involucre in 2 
rows. Receptacle flat, naked. Outer flowerets in several rows, 
‘pistillate, filiform; central flowers perfect, tubular, 4—5-toothed. 
Anthers caudate. Achenes obovate, somewhat compressed, all pap- 
pose; pappus in 1 row. — Annual, dwarf, wooly herbs. 
A small genus widely distributed in the Orient. 
1340. Lasiopogon muscoides (Desf.) DC. Prodrom. IV (1837), 
p. 246. — Aschers.-Schweinf. Ill. Flor. @’Ee., p.88 no.535. — Sicken- 
berg. Contrib. Flor. d’Eg., p. 245. — Gnaphalium muscoides Desf. 
Flor. Atlant. II, p. 267 tab. 231. — Lasiopogon lanatum Cass. Bull. 
