CARDUACEAE. 



399 



13. VERBESINA L. 



Erect or diffuse branching pubescent or hirsute herbs, with opposite 

 leaves, and small peduncled terminal and axillary heads of tubular and radiate 

 whitish flowers. Involucre hemispheric or broadly campanulate, its bracts im- 

 bricated in about 2 series, nearly equal, or the outer longer. Eeceptacle flat or 

 convex, chaffy, the chaff awn-like, subtending the achenes. Ray-flowers pistil- 

 late, fertile. Disk-flowers perfect, mostly fertile, their corollas tubular, 4- 

 toothed or rarely 5-toothed. Anthers entire or minutely 2 -toothed at the base. 

 Style-branches of the disk-flowers with obtuse or triangular tips. Achenes 

 thick, those of the rays 3-sided, those of the disk compressed. Pappus none, 

 or of a few short teeth. [Name altered from Verbena.] About 4 species, 

 mostly of tropical distribution, the following typical. 



1. Verbesina alba L. Eclipta. 

 (Fig. 438.) Annual, rough with ap- 

 pressed pubescence, erect or diffuse, 6'- 

 3° high. Leaves lanceolate, oblong- 

 lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute or 

 acuminate, denticulate or entire, nar- 

 rowed to a sessile base, or the lower 

 petioled, l'-5' long, 2"-10" wide; heads 

 commonly numerous, 3"-6" broad, nearly 

 sessile, or slender-peduncled; rays short, 

 nearly white; anthers brown; achenes 

 4-toothed, or at length truncate. 

 [Eclipta erecta L. ; E. alba Hassk.] 



Frequent in marshes and in wet waste 

 grounds. Native. Southeastern United 

 States and tropical America. Flowers 

 from spring to autumn. 



14. BORRICHIA Adans. 



Fleshy, branching shrubs of the seacoast and salt marshes, with opposite 

 entire or denticulate, cuneate oblong spatulate or obovate, 1-3-nerved leaves, 

 and terminal large long-peduncled heads of both tubular and radiate yellow 

 flowers. Involucre hemispheric, its bracts imbricated in 2 or 3 series, the 

 inner ones coriaceous. Receptacle convex, chaffy, the chaff rigid, concave, 

 subtending or enwrapping the disk-flowers. Ray-flowers pistillate, fertile. 

 Disk-flowers perfect, the corolla tubular, 5-toothed, the style-branches elongated, 

 hispid. Anthers entire at the base, or minutely sagittate. Achenes of the ray- 

 flowers 3-sided, those of the disk-flowers 4-sided. Pappus a short dentate 

 crown. [Named for Olaf Borrick, a Danish botanist.] About 5 species, 

 native of America. Type species : Buphthalmum frutescens L. 



Scales of the receptacle cuspidate. 1. B. frutescens. 



Scales of the receptacle acute or obtuse. 2. B. arhorescens. 



