Lactma.'} LXXVIII. COMPOSITE. (J. D. Hooker.) 403 



(except in Sect. I.) inner slender subequal, outer often very short ; receptacle 

 flat, naked. Achenes compressed or flattened, ovoid oblong or narrow, beaked, 

 faces 3-oo -ribbed ; ribs slender or strong, smooth or rugose, the middle one 

 often strongest ; beak slender or short and cylindric, dilated into an entire or 

 toothed pappiferous disk ; pappus copious, hairs very slender, simple, usually 

 soft and white, but very variable, persistent or separately-deciduous, sometimes 

 with a minnte outer ring. DISTRIB. Species about 60, N. temperate regions. 



The species here brought together under Lactuca differ greatly in habit, some 

 approaching in this respect to species of Launcea, others to Prenanthes, and others 

 again to Crepis. I have found it impossible to group them by the achenes or pappus, 

 and I have had recourse to characters of habit. 



SECT. I. Herbs (habit of Launcea} with radical leaves and spicate or race- 

 mose heads on long strict flowering branches. Heads erect or spreading, narrow, 

 cyliudric, peduncles bracteolate ; invol. bracts with broad membranous margins, 

 outer very small ; ligules yellow. Achenes with muricate ribs ; pappus silky, 

 persistent. (BRACHYRAMPHUS, DC.} 



1. Zi. Heyneana, DC. Prodr. vii. 140; tall, glabrous, leaves runcinate- 

 pinnatifid finely spinulose or ciliate-toothed membranous radical narrowed at 

 the base, cauline |-amplexicaul auricled, flowerirg stems slender, branches 

 erect, heads in. long solitary or fascicled, fascicles distant spiked or subrace- 

 inose, achenes shortly beaked muricate black half the length of the flexuous 

 silvery persistent pappus. Clarke Comp. Ind. 261, excl. some syns. L. runcinata, 

 DC. in Wight Contrib. 26. Brachyramphus Heyneana. Wight Ic. t. 1146; 

 Dalz. 8? Gibs. Bomb. Fl. 132. B. sonchifolius, Thwaites Enum. 168, not of DC. 

 B. taraxacoides, DC. I. c. 177; Wall. Cat. 3279. Prenanthes racemosa, 'Roxb. 

 Fl. Ind. iii. 405. P. sonchifolia, Heyne in Wall. Cat. 3266. P. patens, Wall. 

 Cat. 3258, in part. Microrhynchus patens, DC. I. C.-181. Chondrilla racemosa, 

 Poir. Encyl. Suppl. ii. 330, in part. Sonchus calyculatus, Roxb. mss. 



NORTH WESTERN INDIA ; Royle, Stewart. BANDA; Edgeworth. WESTERN PENIN- 

 SULA ; common in fields. CEYLON ; Galle, Gardner. 



Annual or biennial, 1-4 ft. high; stem hollow below, often very stout and much 

 branched. Radical leaves 612 in., very irregularly pinnatifid, teeth more cartilagi- 

 nous. Heads rarely peduncled, bracteolate ; inner invol. bracts with thickened ribs 

 in fruit. Achenes -^ in., oblanceolate, then suddenly contracted, I have seen no 

 Ceylon specimens, nor any of Wallich's Prenanthes taraxacoides, which is not in his 

 Herbarium. 



2. Zi. remotiflora, DC. in Wight Contrib. 26; glabrous, radical leaves 

 obovate or obovate-spathulate or orbicular finely spinulose 0r ciliate-toothed 

 membranous, radical narrowed at the base, cauline ^-amplexicaul and auricled, 

 flowering-stems very slender, branches erect, heads ^ in. long few racemose 

 long-peduncled, achenes shortly beaked muricate black nearly as long as the 

 soft silvery persistent pappus. L. Schimperi, Jaub. $ Spach. III. PL Orient, t. 

 2^1. Brachyramphus sonchifolius, DC. Prodr. vii. 177 ; Dalz. 8f Gibs. Bomb. 

 Fl. 132. Cacalia sonchifolia, Wall. Cat. 3144 D. 



BANDA ; Edgeworth. SCIND ; Stocks. DISTRIB. Arabia. 



A smaller and more delicate plant than L. Heyneana, with nearly entire (rarely 

 sinuate-pinnatifid) smaller leaves, less branched flowering stems, heads solitary with 

 peduncles as long as themselves, and achenes \ in. long. 



SECT. II. Herbs with intricate dichotomous stiff sometimes spinescent 

 branches and small cauline leaves. Heads sessile, in spiked fascicles or solitary, 

 erect, narrowly cylindric ; invol. bracts with broad membranous margins ; ligules 

 yellow. Achenes indistinctly beaked, smooth ; pappus silvery. (PH(ENIXOPUS, 

 Cans.) 



DD 2 



