192 COMPOSITE. [Jinsliaa. 



A small genus, limited to the hilly districts of northern India and China. Its affinities 

 appear to be rather with Elephanto])us {Elephantosis), than with the other Mntisiea with 

 which it is artificially classed. 



1. A. fragrans, Champ, in Kew Joimi. Bot. iv. 236. Eoot-stock pro- 

 bably creeping. Leaves 2 or 3, almost radical, on long stalks, ovate, cordate 

 or broadly oblong, 2 or sometimes 3 in. long, in other specimens much smaller, 

 entii-e, bearing when young, as well as the stem, a little long loose wool, which 

 soon wears off. Flowering stems erect, stiff, simple, 1 to 1\ ft. long. Flower- 

 heads sessile or nearly so, along the upper half of the stem, and all turned to 

 one side. Involucre 5 or 6 lines long, the bracts few and very pointed. 

 Morets white, rather longer than the involucre, with a sweet smell of almonds. 



Rare on Victoria Peak, Champion ; -who gathered several specimens, but it has not yet 

 been received from any other quarter. 



Tribe XI. (or Suborder) CICHORACJEJE. 



Flower-heads homogamous, the florets all ligidate and hennaphrodite. 

 Leaves alternate. 



37. LACTUCA, Linn. 



Livolucre naiTow ; the bracts few, very unequal, imbricated, mostly with a 

 scarious edge. Keceptacle naked. Achenes ovate or oblong, flat, abruptly 

 contracted into a slender beak, with a pappus of numerous white and silky 

 soft hail's. — Stems erect and leafy. Panicle terminal. 



A considerable genus, widely spread over the temperate regions of the Old World ; more 

 scarce within the tropics. 



I. L. brevirostris. Champ, in Kew Joiirn. Bot. iv. 237. A glabrous 

 and erect annual, full 3 ft. high, and usually simple. Leaves linear or linear- 

 lanceolate, 6 to 8 in. long or even more, entire or rarely bordered by a few 

 small teeth, especially at the base, where they are sometimes expanded into 

 short half-stem-clasping auricles. Flower-heads in a long naiTOw pyramidal 

 panicle. Involucre about 6 lines long, the bracts obtuse. Achenes broad 

 and very flat, black, with a beak not half so long as the achene itself. 



Hongkong, Champion. Also in Khasia and Formosa. Resembles, in many respects, the 

 N. Indian L. longifolia. Wall. ; but the latter species has the leaves sagittate at the base, 

 the panicle much more spreading, and the beak as long or longer than the achene. 



38. TARAXACUM, Juss. 



Involucre of several nearly equal erect bracts, with some smaller imbricated 

 outer ones, often spreading or reflexed. Eeceptacle naked. Achenes scarcely 

 compressed, striated, mmicate, tapering into a long slender beak, with a pappus 

 of copious simple hairs. — Leaves radical. Scape 1-headed. 



A genus probably limited to a single species. 



1. T. Dens-leonis, Besf.; DC. Prod. vii. 145. Eoot-stock perennial, 

 with a thick taproot, black on the outside, and very bitter. Leaves varying 

 from linear-lanceolate and almost entire, to deeply pinnatifid, with broad tri- 

 angular lobes, usually pointing downwards, the terminal ones larger. Scapes 

 fi-om 2 to about 6 in. high. Flowers yellow, rather large. Involucral bracts 

 linear, often thickened at the top, or with a tooth on the back towards the 

 top. Beak of the achenes two or three times as long as the achene itself. 



