Laciuca] lxxi. composit^e. 619' 



79. LACTUCA Tournef., L. ; Benth. A Hook. f. Gen. PI. ii. p. 524. 



1. L. goraeensis Schultz Bip. in Flora xxv. p. 422 (21 July 

 1842); O. & 11. in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. p. 452. 



Sonchiis gormisis Lam. Encyl. Meth. iii. p. 397 (1789) ; non Less. 

 Laumva goneensis 0. Hofim. in Engl. & Prantl, Nat. Pflanzenfam, 

 iv. 5, p. 370 (1894). 



LoANDA. — An annual erect herb ; radical leaves rosulate, variously 

 shaped ; stem sometimes only 7 in. high and sparingly branched, 

 sometimes 2 to 3 ft. high and very much branched ; flowers yellow, 

 like lettuce. The whole plant is eaten by the negroes, and the leaves 

 are prepared and eaten by the colonists after the fashion of lettuce. 

 In places neglected after cultivation and at the sandy margins of 

 dried-up streams, plentiful ; Quicuxe ; tl. and fr. 7 Feb. 1859, got in 

 company with Governor Amaral. Colonial name " Serralhas " (milk 

 lettuce). No. 3629. An annual or biennial erect herb, simple or 

 sparingly branched, milky, with the habit of this genus or of Smichiis ; 

 stem smooth, glaucescent ; leaves variable, membranous, quickly 

 withering ; ligules of the florets pale yellow, flesh-coloured-purplish 

 outside. It is used like endive as a salad and Welwitsch pi-onounced 

 it very relishing. In rather dry and in moist places among low bushes 

 throughout the district, not uncommon ; between the two Maiangas ; 

 fl. and fr. Feb. 1858. No. 3630. At Loanda ; fl. and fr. May 1854. 

 No. 3631. 



Cape de Verde Islands. — Along the rocks at the shore near Yilla 

 da Praya, in the island of San Thiago, tolerably plentiful, but mostly 

 past flowering ; fl. and fr. Jan. 1861. Our specimens much resemble 

 Lactuca nudiatulis Murr. in Nov. Comment. Gotting. iii. p. 74, t. 4 

 (1773), but the achenes differ in having a very short beak. No. 3652. 



2. L. petrensis Hiern, sp. n. 



An erect subglaucescent perennial herb, 9 to 15 in. high or 

 more ; rootstock rather tliickened and almost woody ; stems 

 sulcate-striate, glabrate or puberulous above with short simple 

 hairs, leafy throughout ; leaves alternate, oval-oblong, acute at the 

 apex, broad or somewhat narrowed at the sessile or subsessile clasp- 

 ing base, thinly herbaceous, denticulate and sometimes with a few 

 short spreading lateral lobes, scattered on both faces with minute 

 glandular adpressed scales, hispid with rather long and fleshy 

 simple hairs along the midrib, otherwise glabrous, 2 to 3 in. long 

 by |- to 1 in. broad ; the teeth spreading, unequal, acute, often 

 prickly ; capitula broadly campanulate, many-flowered, about |- in. 

 long or rather more, on rather substantial pedicels ranging up to 

 2 in. long, arranged in flat-topped rather dense bracteate terminal 

 somewhat leafy cymes 1^ to 2 in. broad ; bracts intermediate in 

 form and size as well as position between the ordinary leaves and 

 the involucral bracts, sessile, clasping ; involucral scales imbricate, 

 pluriseriate, mostly subacute at the apex, not thickened at the 

 base, the outermost ones broadly ovate often obtuse, the inner 

 ones successively longer and more oblong, the innermost ones 

 linear-lanceolate or sublinear si;bobtuse I in. long, all partly 

 clothed with minute glandular adpressed scales on the back, thinly 

 coriaceous with thinner coloured or scarious margins; flowers 



