Composite. | FLORA OF NEW ZEALAND. 153 
newly turned-up soil, ete., about the settlements, and which is probably introduced from Europe. Tt has been 
found also in Tasmania and in Western Australia, abundantly throughout North and South America from Canada to 
Chili, at the Cape of Good Hope, West Africa, and throughout India, Siberia, and Europe. Like all other plants 
that follow civilized man, it is now quite impossible to define the limits within which it is truly indigenous. Of 
the two well-marked New Zealand varieties, that sent by Mr. Colenso as certainly indigenous is the commoner Eng- 
lish form, whilst the other, gathered by Dr. Lyall, in rarely visited spots, is the most abundant Tropical variety in 
the New World. Dr. Sinclair sends fine specimens from Auckland and the Thames, precisely identical with Mr. 
Colenso’s and the English states.—Sonchus oleraceus is a tall, smooth, branching or simple, leafy, succulent, milky 
herb, with a hollow grooved stem, and subumbellate corymbs of yellow heads, varying extremely in size and habit, 
and in the form and cutting of the foliage. — Leaves ovate-oblong or linear-oblong, petiolate or sessile, entire, sinuate 
and irregularly toothed, or runcinate pinnatifid, with large or small toothed lobes, sometimes quite linear-elongated 
and sessile and acuminate, with waved spinulose margins, in others broadly oblong, deltoid or fiddle-shaped, with a 
long winged petiole; cauline leaves clasping the stem, with broad auricles. Zwvolucres in all the New Zealand 
specimens quite smooth, but in other countries they are often pilose, pubescent, or glandular; scales in several 
series. Heads yellow, 2-14 inch across, of many ligulate florets. Receptacle smooth. Pappus of many series of 
simple white soft hairs. Achenium oblong, blunt at both ends, compressed, grooved and ribbed. In var. a they 
are narrow, compressed, many-ribbed, the ribs muricated ; in var. 8 they are flat, broader, winged, with few scarcely 
rough ribs. (Name from coudos, hollow, in allusion to the hollow stems ; eoyxos in Greek.) 
1. Sonchus oleraceus, L., Sp. Pl. Forst. Prodr. A. Cunn. Prodr. A. Rich. Flora. 
Var. a; acheniis obovatis compressis multistriatis, striis creberrime muricatis. 
Var. 8; acheniis late oblongis valde compressis alatis paucistriatis, striis fere levibus. S. asper, 
Vill., etc. 
Has. Northern and Middle Islands; abundant, Banks and Solander, Forster, ete. Var. a. Auckland 
and Waikake, Sinclair; Ruapuke Island, Zyall. Var. 8. Interior, Colenso; Chalky Bay, Lyall. Nat. 
names, “ Pororua” and “ Puwha," Colenso. 
The wild plant, Mr. Colenso says, was eaten by the New Zealanders, who gave up its use on the introduction 
of the European weed, which they prefer, as being less bitter. It would be very desirable to ascertain, if possible, 
whether both varieties are truly indigenous, and whether the truly indigenous variety attaches itself to cultivated 
grounds, and mixes with the imported one. 
Oss. I have no specimens of the following very distinct plant :— 
Hieracium fragile, Banks et Sol. ; foliis omnibus radicalibus lineari-spathulatis obtusis patulis e basi 
ad apicem lobulatis lobulis loboque terminali amplo serrulatis costa crassa, scapis 3 crassis 1-foliatis 
superne remote bracteolatis, involucri cylindracei squamis fuscis multiseriatis obtusis glandulosis, flosculis 
luteis, ligulis truncatis apice dentatis. H. fragile e? Leontodon elegans, Banks et Sol. MSS. et Ic. 
Has. Totarra-nui, or Queen Charlotte’s Island, Banks and Solander. 
Apparently a very fleshy plant, with leaves 8-5 inches long, linear, spathulate, lobulate along the edge, termi- 
nated by a large lobe, which, as well as the lobules, is denticulate ; midrib very thick. Scapes stout, with one or 
two leaflets, 6 inches long. Heads yellow, as large as those of Taraxacum, or larger. Involucre oblong, of many 
imbricating appressed scales, apparently covered with glandular pubescence.—Some latitude must be allowed for this 
description. 
