COMPOSITE, (composite tamilt.) 427 



27. XAXTHIUjH, Tourn. Cocklebur. Badhin^dn-teridqi. 



Monoecious, Staminate heads globular ; involucre of several 

 scales ; flowerets tubular, o-toothed ; receptacle chaffy ; anthers free, 

 not caudate ; style filiform, undivided. Pistillate heads ovate, 2- 

 liowered, involucre gamophyllous, 2-celled, covered without with 

 hooked prickles ; style 2-cleft"; stigmas papillose. Akenes compressed, 

 bald — Annual herbs, with alternate leaves and sessile, solitary or 

 racemed heads, the upper staminate. 



1. X, fiitrnmariuni, L. © .8 to 1, unarmed. Leaves long- 

 petioled, scabrous, cor date- triangular, with irregularly toothed lobes. 

 Heads racemed — Spring and summer — 



Var. antiquorum, Boiss. Prickles extending to tip of in- 

 volucre ; beaks divergent — Roadsides and waste places ; common 

 except in alpine and desert regions. 



2. X. gpinosum, L. © .6 to 1, Sxrlnes at lam of Uaves tripartite, 

 yellow, .01 to .03 long ; leaves canescent at lower surface, green except 

 along nerves at upper, short-petioled, wedge-shaped .. at base, oblong- 

 lanceolate, undivided or 3-lobed, the middle lobe much longer. 

 Staminate heads terminal, pistillate involucres usually solitary in axils, 

 nodding — Summer — ^ear mouth of Beirut River. 



2§. ECL.IPTA, L. EcLiPTA. 



Heads many-flowered, radiate. Ray -flowerets short, slender, in 

 few rows, pistillate. Disk -flowerets tubular, 4-toothefl, perfect. Scales 

 of involucre herbaceous, in 2 rows. Receptacle chaffy. Brancheg of 

 style in pistillate flowerets short, filiform, in perfect rather dilated, 

 compressed. Akenes tubercled and puberulent at tip, bald, those of 

 ray-flowerets triquetrous, of disk somewhat compressed — Annual 

 herbs, with opposite leaves and white flowers. 



1. E. alba, L. © .4 to 1, or more. Leaves olioletely denticulate^ 

 oblong-lanceolate, tapering at each end. Scales of involucre ovate, 

 obtuse, scarcely longer than flowerets — September to March — Wet 

 places ; Ghor-es-Safiyeh. 



2. E. mar^nata, Hochst. .5 to 1. Leaves dentate, oblong- 

 lanceolate to ovate-oblong, tapering at each end. Scales of involucre 

 oblong-lanceolate, twice as long as flowerets — August and September 

 — Swampy places ; Alexandretta to Amanus. 



29. BIDENS, L. BuR-]yL^iUGOLD. 



Heads (in ours; discoid. Flowers tubular, perfect. Scales of in- 

 volucre in 2 rows, the outer harbaceous. Receptacle chaffy. Branches 

 of style tipped by a short cone. Akenes obovate-cuneate, truncate, 2- 

 4-bearded, beards persistent, retrorse-prickly — Annual herbs, with op- 

 posite leaves and yellow flowers. 



B. tripartita, L. © 1 or more, glabrescent ; stem erect, 

 branching. Leaves petioled, 3-parted into lanceolate, toothed leiflets. 

 Heads erect, solitary ; outer scales of involucre linear-spathulate, un- 

 equal, green, spreading, twice to thrice as long as the inner, which are 

 oblong, brown, scarious-margined, about as long as flowerets — August 



