Plate 2583. 



ODONTOSPEEMUM PYGMiEUM, 0. Hoffm. 



Composite. Tribe Inuloide.e. 



0. pygmaeum, 0. Uoffm. in Engl. & PrantI, NatiirL Pjlanz* nf. iv. 5, 

 p. 209 ; ab 0. aquatico, Sch.-Bip. cliffert caule primario vix evoluto 

 secundariis brevibus vel brevissimis, foliis distincte petiolatis. 



1L rba annua, erecta, interdum monocephala, cum foliis capitula 

 superantibus, 1-5 poll, alta, caulibus crassiusculis dense foliatis. 

 Folia spathulata, usque ad 3 poll, longa sed saepius multo breviora, 

 mollia, cinereo pubescentia. Capitula subsessilia, post anthesin bracteis 

 valde hygroscopica. Involucri bractese externa* foliaceae, herbaceas fl< >res 

 superantes, internee breviores, crassse, coriacese. Receptaeuli paleae, 

 crassse, rigid ae, llores invoiventes. Achcenia angulata, hirsuta. Pappi 



paleee circiter 10, fimbriate. — Asteriscus pygmceus, Coss. et Dur. in 

 Bull. Soc. Bot. Fr. iv. p. 471 ; Boiss. Fl. Orient, iii. p. 179. A. aqua- 

 tics var. pygnatu*, DC. Prodr. vii. p. 287. Saulcya hierochuntica^ 

 Michon, Yoy. Relig. en Orient, ii. p. 383; Kew Bulletin, 1897, 

 p. 210. 



North Africa to Baluchistan : inhabiting very dry or desert 

 regions in Algeria, Upper Egypt, Arabia, Palestine and Baluchistan, 

 but apparently not found in Persia. 



The object of figuring this plant was twofold : first to give a 

 complete representation of it, including leaves, flowers, and fruit, 

 and secondly to show how it differs from typical 0. aquaticum. 

 It is interesting on account of its remarkable rapid hygroscopic 

 properties, and as being, according to some authorities, the true 

 1 Rose of Jericho ' of mediaeval writers. In habit and ash-grey 

 colour it is usually easily distinguished from typical 0. aqua&ieum, 

 which has an even wider range in the Mediterranean region, in- 

 cluding South Europe, from Spain eastward through < -reece etc. 

 But we have not succeeded in finding any obvious differences in the 

 flower-heads, flowers, or achenes. It was intended to figure only typical 

 0. pygm(fum, but later investigations seem to prove that figure 1 and 

 the dissections, figures 5-9, belong to a reduced state of 0. aquaticum, 

 assuming that they are specifically different. Figure 1 is of a plant 

 collected by Porta and Rigo in Spain, No. 311 (Almeria in coltibi/s 

 aridi&simis, solo cal o) and named l Asteriscus aquati-us, Moench, 



