Stegesbeckia. | COMPOSITE. 349 
Kermapec Isianps, NortH Istanp: In various ijocalities as far south as the 
East Cape, but not common ; usually near the coast. Punawaru. January— 
March. 
This was treated as a naturalised plant by Hooker, but as it was collected 
by Banks and Solander during Cook’s first voyage its nativity is unquestionable. 
15. BIDENS, Tourn. 
Annual or perennial usually erect herbs. Leaves opposite, 
toothed or incised or pinnately divided. Heads corymbosely 
panicled or subsolitary, on long peduncles, heterogamous and 
radiate, or homogamous and discoid. Involucre campanulate or 
hemispherical; bracts in about 2 series, connate at the base, the 
outer herbaceous, the inner membranous. Receptacle flat or con- 
vex, paleaceous. Ray-florets when present female or neuter; ligule 
white or vellow, spreading. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, tubular, 
5-toothed. Anthers usually obtuse at the base. Style-branches of 
the hermaphrodite florets hairy above, with a long or short subulate 
point. Achene broad and compressed or slender and tetragonous, 
often narrowed at the tip. Pappus of 2—4 rigid retrorsely hispid 
bristles. 
A large genus of over 100 species, widely spread in tropical regions, but most 
plentiful in America. The single New Zealand species is a common weed in all 
warm countries and many temperate ones. 
1. B. pilosa, Linn. Sp. Plant. 832.—An erect glabrous or pubes- 
cent herb 1-3 ft. high; branches angular, grooved. Leaves very 
variable, simple or pinnate; segments 3 or 5, stalked, 2-2 in. long, 
ovate or ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, serrate or rarely 
lobed, thin and membranous. Heads few, terminal on long 
slender peduncles, yellow, 4-4in. diam.; involucral bracts about 
tin. long. Ray-florets few and short, often entirely wanting. 
Achenes black, slender, 4-angled, striate, crowned with 2 or 4 
barbed awns.—A. Rich. Fl. Nouv. Zel. 235; A. Cunn. Precur. 
n. 442; Raoul, Choiz, 45; Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 188; Benth. 
Fl. Austral. in. 543; Kirk, Students’ Fl. 318. B. aurantiacus, 
Col. in Trans. N.Z. Inst. xxvii. (1895) 388. 
Kermabec Is~tanps, Nortu Istanp : Not uncommon as far south as the 
East Cape. November—March. 
16. COTULA, Tourn. 
Creeping or tufted perennial or annual herbs, usually of small 
size, often aromatic. Leaves alternate, pinnatifid or pinnatisect, 
rarely entire or toothed. Heads small, peduncled, heterogamous 
and discoid or rarely homogamous through the suppression of the 
female florets, sometimes diccious. Involucre hemispheric or 
campanulate ; bracts in about 2 series, membranous or herbaceous ; 
margins often scarious. Receptacle flat or convex or conical, 
