368 COMPOSITE. [ Senecio. 
21. SENECIO, Linn. 
Herbs, shrubs, or small trees of exceedingly various habit, 
glabrous or pubescent or more or less woolly or tomentose. Leaves 
alternate, entire or variously divided. Heads solitary or corymbose 
or paniculate, heterogamous and radiate or homogamous and dis- 
coid. Involucre from cylindrical to hemispherical; bracts in 1 or 2 
series, nearly equal, erect, free or connate below, usually with a 
few much shorter ones at the base. Receptacle flat or convex, 
naked, pitted or fimbrillate. Florets of the circumference female, 
ligulate, sometimes sterile or wanting. Disc-florets hermaphrodite, 
tubular, 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse at the base or minutely tailed. 
Style-branches of the hermaphrodite florets recurved, their tips 
truncate or penicillate. Achenes subterete, usually ribbed or 
striate. Pappus-hairs copious, soft, white, smooth or scabrid or 
barbellate. 
The largest genus of Composite, if not of flowering plants generally, 
probably containing fully 1,000 species. It is found in all parts of the world, 
stretching from the equator to the limits of phenogamic vegetation in both the 
arctic and antarctic regions, but is most abundant in temperate and moun- 
tainous districts. Few of the species have wide ranges, and many have a very 
restricted distribution. Of the 30 found in New Zealand, one extends to Aus- 
tralia, the rest are all endemic. The herbaceous species are exceedingly variable, 
and some of them difficult to determine; but the shrubby varieties are remark- 
ably distinct. Some of them, such as S. Hectori and S. Kirkii, must be ranked 
amongst the most beautiful members of the flora. 
A. Perennial or rarely annual herbs. 
* Herbs with broad radical leaves and naked simple or branched scapes. In- 
volucral bracts in 2 series. 
Leaves 1-6in., broadly oblong, cordate at the base, rugose 
and bristly above, white and tomentose beneath. Scape 
glandular-tomentose 1. S. lagopus. 
Leaves #-4in., broadly oblong ‘to linear- oblong, “narrowed 
at the base, rugose and bristly above, glabrate beneath. 
Scape cottony 2. S, bellidioides. 
Leaves 2-6 in., broadly oblong, ‘both surfaces clothed with 
snow-white tomentum A 3. S. Haastit. 
Leaves 3-6in., broadly oblong or orbicular- oblong, upper 
surface silky or villous, not bristly, under-surface white 
and tomentose fi te Po std .. 4. S. saxifragoides. 
** Herb with an erect leafy stem, corsmbose above. Involucral bracts 
in 2 series. 
Leaves 2-10in., linear. Heads large, with long spread- 
ing rays.. ats che 3: of .. 5. S&S. Lyaliu. 
*** Herbs with branched leafy stems. Heads corymbose. Involucral 
bracts in 1 series. 
Stems stout, fistulose, 1-2ft. Leaves 2-5in., deeply 
pinnatifid, rather fleshy, mealy - tomentose beneath. 
Heads corymbose, 4-4 in. diam., rays wanting .. 6. S. antipodum. 
