170 COMPOSlTiE. \Vernonia. 



purple florets. Involucral bracts short, very obtuse and wooUy or cottony. 

 Achenes 4- to 5 -angled, glabrous, the basal callus veiy prominent. Pappus 

 of a dii-ty white, the outer row very short. 



Abundant on the hills. Hinds, Champion, and others {Fortune, n. 175), Not known out 

 of the island. It is however very near to the V. javanica, DC, which extends over the 

 Archipelago and Ceylon, but that is generally much less hairy, and its achenes are distinctly 

 striate and haiiy, besides other minor differences. 



4. V. Cumingiana, Benth. m Kew Journ. Bot. iv. 233. A tall climber' 

 shrubby at the base, sometimes nearly glabrous, but usually rough with a very 

 short rusty down, especially on the branches and under side of the leaves. Leaves 

 shortly stalked, ovate or oval-oblong, scarcely acuminate, obtuse at the base, 

 3 to 4 in. long. Flower-heads rather large, in short panicles, either terminal 

 or in the upper axils, each with about 20 purple florets. Involucral bracts 

 nearly glabrous, rather obtuse, bordered with a thin pale edge. Achenes striate, 

 slightly hauy. Pappus long and very prominent, of a rusty coloui', the outer 

 row about half as long as the rest. 



On Victoria Peak, Champion, at Little Hongkong, Wilford, also Harland and Wright. 

 Found also in the Philippine Islands, and is nearly allied to the E. Indian V. scandens, but 

 that has the leaves narrowed at the base, the flower-heads smaller, etc. 



4. ELEPHANTOPUS, Linn. 



Flower-heads of 2 to 5 florets, compressed, and collected together in clusters 

 or compound heads, surrounded by a few leafy bracts. Involucral bracts about 

 8, dry, stiff, alternately plane and conduplicate. Eeceptacle naked. Corolla 

 with 4 nan'ow equal lobes, but deeper cleft on one side, so as to be somewhat 

 palmate. Pappus of a few stiff bristles, somewhat dilated at the base. — Stiff 

 herbs, with alternate leaves. 



A genus of about a dozen American species, one of which is also spread over tropical 

 Africa and Asia. 



1. E. scaber, Linn.; DC. Prod. v. 86; Wight, Ic. t. 1086. Stock 

 perennial. Stems stiff, erect, about a foot high, with a few forked spreading 

 l3ranches, more or less covered, as well as the leaves and involucres, with grey- 

 ish hairs. Eadical leaves 2 to 4 inches long, obovate-oblong, more or less 

 crenate, and usually nan*owed into a stalk at the base. Stem-leaves few and 

 more sessile. Flower-heads closely clustered into terminal hemispherical com- 

 pound heads, of near an inch diameter, suiTounded by about 4 broadly cor- 

 date sessile leafy bracts. Involucral bracts narrow, very pointed, almost 

 prickly. — E. carolinianus, WiUd. ; E. nudicaulis, EU. ; E. mollis, H. B. K. ; 

 and E. Martii, Grah. ; DC. Prod. v. 86. 



Waste places. Champion, Hance, Wright. Common in the warmer regions of America, 

 Africa, and Asia, extending in the Old World southward to North Australia, and northward, 

 appai'ently not beyond South China. It varies everywhere, chiefly in the amount of hairi- 

 ness, but is scarcely separable into distinct varieties. 



Tribe III. EUPATORIACEJE, 



Leaves opposite or rarely alternate. Flower-heads discoid ; the florets all 

 tubidar, hermaphi'odite, and regular. Style not swoUen or bulbous-shaped 



