Sonchus.] composite. 195 



or prickly teeth, otherwise either undivided or pinnatifid, with a broad heart- 

 shaped or triangular terminal lobe ; the upper ones narrow and clasping the 

 stem with short auricles. Flower-heads in a short corymbose terminal panicle, 

 sometimes almost umbellate. Florets of a pale yellow. — S. ciliatus, Lam. ; 

 Wight, let. 1141. 



In waste and cultivated places, Hinds and others. A weed of cultivation, probably indi- 

 genous to Europe or central Asia, but now distributed over the greater part of the globe. 

 Two marked varieties are generally found growing together ; in the one (S. aspera), the ribs 

 of the achenes are perfectly smooth ; in the other, for which the name of S. oleraceus is 

 more specially retained, they are marked with transverse asperities. The Hongkong speci- 

 mens I have seen belong to the latter, the Indian ones chiefly to the former. 



Order LX. STYLIDIE^S. 



Calyx- tube adnate to the ovary ; the limb of 2 to 6, usually 5, persistent 

 divisions. Corolla usually irregular, deeply divided into 5 or 6 lobes. Sta- 

 mens 2 ; the filaments connate with the style, the anthers lying over the 

 stigma, which is entire or 2-lobed. Ovary 2-celled, with many ovules, or 

 sometimes 1 -celled by the contraction of the dissepiment, often surmounted 

 by 1 or 2 glands. Capsule opening from the top downwards in 2 valves 

 parallel to the dissepiment. Seeds numerous, very small, with a minute em- 

 bryo in a fleshy albumen. — Herbs, with radical or scattered undivided leaves. 

 Flowers in terminal racemes, spikes, or corymbs. 



A small Order, almost entirely Australian. 



1. STYLIDITJM, Swartz. 



Corolla irregular, 5-lobed, one of the lobes smaller than the others and 

 turned downwards ; the other 4 ascending in pairs. Anthers 2-lobed. Stigma 

 undivided. The other characters those of the Order. 



A genus comprising nearly the whole Order, and all Australian, except the following and 

 one other E. Indian species. The column into which the stamens and style are united is, in 

 this genus, curiously irritable. 



1. S. uliginosum, Sw. ; DC. Prod. vii. 336. A slender glabrous an- 

 nual. Leaves radical, rosulate, ovate or orbicular, 2 to 5 lines long, on petioles 

 varying from ^ to 2 lines. Stems erect, filiform, 3 or 4 in. high, simple or 

 slightly branched, with a few minute oblong bracts seldom above ^ line long. 

 Flowers sessile, alternate, distant from each other, forming a broken terminal 

 spike. Ovary slender, about 2 lines long when the flower expands, but 

 lengthening to 3 lines. Calyx-lobes linear, scarcely 1 line long, slightly 

 united in 2 lips or free to the base. Corolla scarcely longer, the staminal 

 column protruding. Capsule linear, 2-celled, opening in 2 valves, leaving the 

 dissepiment free. — S. sinicum, Hance in Walp. Ann. ii. 1030. 



In wet marshy places, Champion, Wright, Hance, Wilford. Also Ceylon, and if, as is 

 probable, the S. Kunthii is merely a robust variety, it is also in Silhet, Chittagong, and the 

 Malayan Peninsula. 



Order LXI. CAMPANULACE^. 



Calyx-tube adnate to the ovary ; the limb of 3 to 10, usually 5, persistent 

 lobes. Corolla regular or irregular, with 3 to 10, usually 5 lobes, valvate in 



o 2 



