96 TRANSACTIONS OF THE [Sess. lxxxvi 



mucronate, basal appendages (lig. 7), which are quite 

 unlike the inconspicuous, small, acute appendages of some 

 Himalayan species of Senecio, e.g. S. Candolleanus, Wall., 

 and S. cheihopodifolms, DC. The corolla is tubular- 

 campanulate, regularly and deeply 5-lobed (fig. 4) ; pale 

 rose almost white in colour (fide Forrest), drying to a dark 

 brown. The achenes (fig. 8) are terete and glabrous with 

 five prominent ridges. The setae of the pappus are numer- 

 ous white, soft, and scabrid. 



Apart from its interest as a new type of Covipositae, 

 Parasenecio is interesting on account of its bearing upon 

 the evolution of the family. Whereas Gavea'^ was sug- 

 gested to be an ancient type and possibly a remote ancestor 

 of tlie Cynareae, this new genus seems to be one of the 

 most recent developments from the Senecio plexus. The 

 single, large, radical leaf suggest a comparison with 

 Tussilago and Petasites; the geophilous method of pro- 

 jecting the inflorescence first wliich obtains in these two 

 genera may be regarded as a secondary adaptation to the 

 short summer season characteristic of the more northern 

 habitats of the coltsfoot and butter-bur. The aflSnities 

 which are shown with Gy^emanthodiniii and with the 

 Ligidaria and Synotis sections of Senecio have already 

 been mentioned, and in these more immediate neighbours 

 of the new genus we do not find the geophilous habit. 

 Parasenecio, therefore, has affinities with the northern, 

 uniphyllous, geophilous type and with the more southern, 

 radical-leaved, scapigerous type. Both these types, accord- 

 ing to the views of one of us,- were derived from Senecio 

 by the response made to various environmental factors. 

 It is noteworthy, therefore, that the elongated appendages 

 of the style branches and the simple stamens which 

 distinguish the Tussila(/{,nin(ie and fAr/ularia are absent 

 in Parasenecio, which tlms approaches the common ancestor 

 of those groups more closely than does any genus of the 

 Tussilagininae. Parasenecio, in fact, appears as another 



1 Sniilh, VV. W. and Small, J.: Cavea ; a new Genus of the Coin- 

 positae from the East Himalaya. Trans, and Proc. Bot. Soc. Edin., 

 Vol. xxvii, p. 12.3, 1917. 



'^ Small, J. : Origin and Development of the Compositae. New 

 Phytologist., Vol. xviii, p. 20G, 1919. 



