Blumea.] composite. 179 



over tropical and subtropical Africa (B. Hregeana, DC, and B. Dregeanoides, Sch. Bip.) 

 and southern Asia to North Australia. 



15. PLUCHEA, Less. 



All the characters of Blumea, except that the style of the disk-florets is 

 usually (not always) entire or minutely 2 -toothed, the involncral bracts are 

 usually broader and more obtuse, and the habit is different, the flower-heads 

 always forming terminal, almost leafless corymbs. Styles of the female florets, 

 and occasionally but rarely in the disk also, with 2 subulate branches, as in 

 Blumea. 



The genus comprises several N. and S. American species, a very few from Africa and S. 

 Asia, and some Australian ones. 



1. P. indica, Less. ; J)G. Prod. v. 451 ; Wight, Illustr. tf. 131. A branch- 

 ing shrub of about 3 ft., either glabrous or covered with a minute glandular 

 aromatic pubescence. Leaves shortly stalked, ovate or oblong, 1 to 2 in. long, 

 with a few distant pointed teeth. Flower-heads in dense sessile terminal 

 corymbs, seldom above 3 in. diameter. Involucre ovoid, about 3 lines long ; 

 the outer bracts short and very obtuse, passing into the inner linear ones 

 which are almost acute. Female florets very numerous. Disk-florets seldom 

 above 6, often sterile. 



Hongkong, Hance, Wright. Extends from eastern Bengal and the Malayan Peninsula 

 over the Archipelago to N. Australia, and northward to the Philippines and S. China. In 

 some specimens I find the styles of all the disk-flowers entire, as in the American species, in 

 others I find several of them branched, as described by Lessing. In the P. tomentosa and 

 P. Wallichiana, they are always branched, but these species have the pappus-bristles of the 

 disk-florets shortly plumose, and should be referred to Berthelotia. The original Berthe- 

 lotia indica has the anthers as much tailed as Pluchea indica. 



16. SOLIDAGO, Linn. 



Flower-heads heterogamous. Florets of the ray ligulate, spreading, yellow 

 like the disk, usually few. Disk-florets hermaphrodite, tubular, 5-toothed. 

 Involucres ovoid or narrow, the bracts imbricated, very unequal, in several 

 series. Beceptacle naked. Style-appendages lanceolate. Achenes terete or 

 slightly compressed, ribbed. Pappus of numerous capillary, nearly equal 

 bristles. — Perennial herbs. Flower-heads in terminal or axillary racemes, 

 clusters, or short panicles, rarely corymbose. 



A large North American genus, of which a single species spreads across northern Asia 

 into Europe. 



1. S. Virga-aurea, Linn.; DC. Prod. v. 338. Stock perennial. Stems 

 erect, strict, nearly simple, from a few inches to about 2 ft. high. Lower 

 leaves stalked, ovate or oblong, slightly toothed; upper ones narrower, smaller, 

 and more entire. Flower-heads solitary or 2 to 4 together on short axillary 

 peduncles, forming a terminal narrow oblong or elongated leafy panicle. In- 

 volucral bracts narrow and acute. Ray-florets about 8. — Ampldrliapis leio- 

 carpa, Benth. in Lond. Journ. Bot. i. 480, and in Kew Journ. Bot. iv. 234. 



Abundant in ravines, Champion and others, but only the variety with glabrous achenes. 

 The species extends from the western or mountainous portions of N. America across the 

 Asiatic continent, all over Europe. In Europe the achenes are almost always pubescent ; in 



N 2 



