580 Lxxi. COMPOSIT.E. [Melcmthera 



and fr. middle of May 1856. No. 3552. Scandent ; flowers golden- 

 yellow. Bango, Queta ; fl. and fr. June 1856. No. 3553. The local 

 name " N-garacaga " is applied to this and also to other species. 



The following No. has smaller capitnla (about ^ in. long) and 

 petioles rather shorter (^ to 1^ in. long) than the two previous : — - 



G(iLUXf;<) Alto. — A herb 4 to 5 ft. high ; stem more or less flexuous, 

 climbing among shrubs. In dense thickets near stream Quibolo among 

 the mountains of Queta, sparingly ; fl. 19 March 1856. No. 3549. 



0. Kuntze, I.e., p. 306, has reduced this genus to A melius P. Br. 

 (1756), non L. (1759) ; but P. Browne's plant, though considered 

 congeneric by R. Brown in Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. part 1, p. 117 (1817), 

 is not included in Melanthera as now limited. The person after 

 whom the above species was named is (notwithstanding the spelling) 

 R. Brown and not P. Browne. 



2. M. varians Hiern, sp. n. 



An erect or ascending or subscandent herb, f to 4 ft. high, 

 annual, scabrid; stems erect or prostrate or almost climbing, 

 more or less branched ; bi'anches opposite, rather slender, furrowed, 

 more or less angular, rough, strigulose towards the apex ; leaves 

 ovate or oval-ovate, opposite, pointed or shortly acuminate at the 

 apex, obtuse or abruptly narrowed at the base, more or less 

 dentate, sometimes hastate-lobulate near the base, rigidly 

 membranous, rough with whitish strigulose hairs which leave on 

 the surface rough bases, '^ to 3^ in. long by i to 3 in. broad ; 

 petioles ranging up to nearly an inch long ; capitula heterogamous, 

 radiate, homochromous, hemispherical, j to 4 in long, on unequal 

 rather slender hispidulous peduncles ranging up to 3 in., sub- 

 solitary or paniculate, arranged in open somewhat leafy terminal 

 corymbose or rounded cymes ; involucral scales biseriate, fi-ee to 

 the base ; the outer ovate with a green lanceolate upper part, 

 strigulose on the back, imbricate at the base, nearly flat, about 

 •1 in. long ; the inner ones subscarious, whitish and oblong below, 

 substramineous ovate and ciliolate above, about as long as the 

 outer ones, concave and partly embracing the ray-florets ; flowers 

 yellow ; ray-florets uniseriate, ligulate, female, fertile ; the ligule 

 deep-yellow, exceedingly variable in size ; the ovary subcom- 

 piessed but somewhat trigonous, slightly hairy on the angles, 

 widening a little upwards, with a shortly hairy ring around the 

 apex and 3 unequal scabrid deciduous aristse at the top of the 

 angles the longest of which is as long as the ovary ; disk-florets 

 pluriseriate, \ in. long, tubular, regular, wdth the ovary similar 

 to that of a ray-floret but subglabrous and usually more com- 

 pressed and with 2 or 3 aristae all but 1 very caducous, 

 embraced by the scales of the receptacle which are similar to the 

 inner involucral scales marked with several parallel lines and 

 at length become flatter ; anthers fuscous, ecaudate, obtuse at 

 the base, appendaged at the apex; achenes dusky, roundedly 

 trigonous but slightly compressed, thicker upwards, minutely 

 dotted, subtruncate, nearly glabrate ; pappus obsolete or with the 

 remains of a whitish ring around the top. 



