COMPOSITE. 79 



across, in the female plant twice as long as in the male, 3 to 7, col- 

 lected into a corymbose head, of which the short branches bear 

 only 1 or (more rarely) 2 anthodes. Elorets pink. Corolla of the 

 female flower with a very oblique limb. Achenes oblong-fusiform, 

 papillose. Pappus of the fertile florets of slender hairs ; pappus 

 of the slender abortive ovaries of the male plant of very numerous 

 clavate compressed hairs with thick denticulations. 



Mountain JEverlasting . 



French, Gnaphale Pied de Chat. German, Zweihausiges Buhrkraut 



The flowers sold so much in France under the name of Immortelles are a species 

 of this genus, and resemble our native ones, which form a substitute for the brighter 

 kinds. Wreaths, chaplets, and innumerable devices are formed out of these flowers, to 

 decorate the graves of departed friends, in France. In the neighbourhood of P^re la 

 Chaise, the great Parisian cemetery, numbers of families are constantly employed in 

 the manufacture of these memorials, and a large sale of them is constantly effected. 

 Imperishable as the affection which dictates the adornment, these pretty flowers are 

 supposed to be. 



Tribe IV.— SENECIONE^. 



Leaves alternate. Anthodes generally heterogamous and ra- 

 diant. Elorets of the disk tubular, perfect, those of the circum- 

 ference generally female and ligulate. Anthers without basal 

 appendages. Branches of the style slender, terminated by a 

 pencil-like tuft. Achenes cylindrical, with longitudinal ridges. 

 Pappus consisting of hairs, very rarely absent. 



GEN US XVI.— S E N E C I O. Li 



mn. 



Anthodes heterogamous and radiant, rarely homogamous and 

 discoid. Clinanth flattish or convex, pitted but without palese. 

 Pericline cylindrical or campanulate, of a single row of equal 

 herbaceous phyllaries, generally with a second irregular series of 

 much shorter ones at the base, all at length reflexed. Elorets 

 of the disk tubular and perfect, generally surrounded by a ray 

 of female ligulate florets. Branches of the style of the perfect 

 flowers truncate, penicillate at the apex. Achenes cylindrical, not 

 beaked, ribbed. Pappus of numerous rows of setaceous, nearly 

 simple, mere or less caducous hairs. 



Annual or perennial herbs or under-shrubs, with alternate 

 leaves, and corymbose (more rarely paniculate or solitary) an- 

 thodes. Elorets generally yellow, more rarely orange or purple. 



The name of this genus of plants is given in allusion to the hoary appearance of 

 some of the species, and comes from senex, an old man. 



