Scahiosa.'] lxxiii. cOMPOSiTiE (Oliver and hiern). 253 



hairs especially on the margins and midrib beneath, entire, -§-2^ in. 

 long by TO— f in. wide. Heads subhemispherical, 1-1^ in. in diameter, 

 on naked terminal peduncles 2-6 in, long covered with short white 

 curved hairs : scales of the involucre 10-15, subbiseriate, the inner ones 

 alternate and shorter, lanceolate- linear, acute, albido-tomentose on 

 both sides, equalling or somewhat falling short of the flowers. In^o- 

 lucel oblong, tubular, densely pubescent, equalling the ovary, costate, 

 denticulate at the apex. Setas of the pappus plumose, equalling the 

 corolla- tube ; corolla pubescent outside and at the top of the tube 

 inside. Ovary densely pubescent, .costate. — Pterocephalus frutescens, 

 Hochst. in Hb. Schimp. Abyss, i. n. 235 ; A. Rich. Fl. Abyss, i. 369 ; 

 P. QuartinianuSf A. Rich. I.e. 



irile JmBmA. Abyssinia, Schimper ! Quartin Billon and Petit ! Salt ! Pearce ! 



Order LXXIII. COMPOSiTiE. (By Prof. Oliver and 

 W. P. Hiern.) 



Flowers (florets) collected few or many (rarely reduced to one) 

 on a common receptacle, surrounded by an involucre of one or more 

 rows of bracts, forming a capitulum. Receptacle naked or paleace- 

 ous or setose, smooth or more or less deeply alveolate. Florets all 

 alike, either ligulate or tubular, or the outer florets (ray) ligulate and 

 the inner (disk) tubular, or (very rarely in Tropical African genera) 

 bilabiate ; ray-florets usually 1 -sexual or neuter. Calyx assumed to 

 be adherent throughout to the ovary, limb 0, or represented by a ring 

 of hairs or bristles or scales (pappus). Corolla epigynous, tubular, 

 short or long, cylindrical or campanulate, 4-5-toothed with valvate 

 teeth or occasionally very slender with an entire truncate or oblique 

 mouth, or ligulate, the lamina spreading from the centre of the capitu- 

 lum. Stamens 5 or 4, inserted in the tube of the corolla ; filaments 

 free ; anthers linear, coherent in a sheath around the style, (rarely con- 

 tiguous and free) cells often produced at the base into tail-like appen- 

 dages or sagittate. Ovary inferior, 1-celled, style fihform, usually bifid 

 above, the branches acute, obtuse, truncate or penicillate, flat or terete, 

 sometimes clavate, variously papillose and stigmatic. Ovule solitary 

 erect anatropous. Fruit usually small dry 1-seeded, but rarely 

 winged, naked above or crowned by the persistent sessile or stipitate 

 pappus. Seed exalbuminous. — Herb, shrubs or rarely trees. Leaves 

 alternate or opposite, exstipulate. Capitula terminal, rarely axillary, 

 solitary or variously corymbose or panicled ; rarely the heads, few- 

 flowered, are collected in compound capitula. 



The largest Natural Order of Pheenogamia, represented in every 

 phyto-geographic region, though most numerous, proportionally in the 

 New World, and in the Cape Flora where they exceed 1,300. Of the 

 following 117 genera about 17 are peculiar to this Flora ; these are all 

 small or monotypic. 



Tribe I. VemoniaceaB. Capitula horaogamous, florets all 

 tubular, hermaphrodite. Involucral scales indefinite, nsually multi- 



