Senecionidea.'] composite. 189 



Tribe IX. SENECIONIDEM 



Leaves alternate. Flower-heads usually heterogamous with radiating female 

 florets, but sometimes homogamous with the florets all tubular and hermaphro- 

 dite. Receptacle without scales. Anthers obtuse or scarcely pointed at the base. 

 Style-branches truncate and penicillate, or ending in pubescent points. Pap- 

 pus of several capillary bristles. 



32. GYNURA, Cass. 



Florets all tubular. Involucre cylindrical, of a single series of nearly equal 

 bracts, with some smaller ones round their base. Corolla hardened at the 

 base. Style bulbous at the base, the branches ending in long linear hairy* 

 points. Achenes striate. — Herbs, often somewhat succulent. Flower-heads 

 terminal, usually loosely corymbose. 



A small tropical genus, confined to the Old World. 



1. G. pseudochina, DC. Prod. vi. 299. Eoot-stock perennial, thick 

 and fleshy. Stems erect or ascending, 1 to 1| ft. high, somewhat succulent, 

 leafy in the lower part only, ending in a long almost leafless peduncle, bearing 

 a loose corymb of 2 to 7 or 8 flower-heads, or sometimes a single head. Leaves 

 stalked, from oblong to oval, coarsely toothed, rather thick, glabrous or pu- 

 bescent, 2 to 3 or even 4 in. long, the petiole often expanded at the base into 

 2 auricles or lobes. Flower-heads about 7 lines long. Involucre shorter than 

 the florets, of about 12 linear-lanceolate nearly equal bracts, with several short 

 slender ones outside. Florets yellow, drying purplish. — G. ovalis and G. 

 auriculata, DC. Prod. vi. 300. G. bullosa, Hook, and Am. ; DC. Prod. vi. 

 301. Porophyllum Meracioides, DC. Prod. v. 650. 



Ravines of Victoria Peak, and other parts of the island, Champion, Hance, Wright, Wil- 

 ford. Also on the adjacent continent ; but not gathered certainly wild out of S. China. The 

 specimens sent from the Mauritius or from India are probably all from botanic or other gar- 

 dens. It is cultivated for its root even in China. 



33. SENECIO, Linn. 



Florets all tubular, or the outer row female and ligulate. Involucre of a 

 single row of nearly equal bracts, with or rarely without a few small ones 

 round their base. Corollas not hardened at the base. Style-branches in the 

 disk-florets truncate and penicillate, or very rarely with a short obtuse appen- 

 dage. Achenes striate or angular. Pappus of numerous capillary bristles. — 

 Herbs or very rarely shrubs. Leaves alternate. Flowers terminal, solitary, 

 corymbose or paniculate. Florets usually yellow, rarely purple. 



The largest genus among Composites, and ranging nearly over the whole world, although 

 the individual species are often very local. 



Annual. Flower-heads discoid 1. S. sonchifolius. 



Perennials. Flower-heads radiating. 



Leaves stalked, ovate-lanceolate 2. S. chinensis. 



Leaves stem-clasping, lanceolate or linear 3. S. Stauntonii. 



1. S. sonchifolius, Mosnck. An erect or ascending annual, about a foot 

 high, rather glaucous and glabrous, or with a few loose hairs near the base. 

 Lower leaves usually orbicular, scarcely an inch diameter, sinuately toothed, 



