CARDUACEAE. 435 



Tribe VIII. Cynareab. 

 Bracts of the involucre spined at the apex ; leaves prickly. 35. Cirsium. 



Tribe IX. Mutisieae. 



Heads homogamous ; achenes conic, pubescent; leafy shrubs. 36. Anastraphia. 

 Heads heterogamous ; achenes 5-ribbed, rostrate ; herbs. 37. Chaptalia. 



1. VERNONIA Schreb. Gen. PI. 2: 541. 1791. 



Erect branching perennial herbs, or some tropical species shrubby, with 

 alternate (rarely opposite), entire or toothed, sessile or petioled leaves, and 

 discoid cymose-paniculate heads of purple, pink, or white tubular flowers. In- 

 volucre hemispheric, campanulate or oblong-cylindric, its bracts imbricated in 

 several or many series. Receptacle flat, naked. Corolla regular, 5-cleft. 

 Anthers sagittate at the base, not caudate. Style-branches subulate, his- 

 pidulous their whole length. Achenes 8-10-ribbed, truncate. Pappus in 2 

 series, the inner of numerous roughened capillary bristles, the outer of much 

 shorter small scales or stout bristles. [oSTamed after William Vernon, English 

 botanist.] Over 500 species, of wide distribution in warm-temperate regions, 

 most abundant in South America. Type species: Vernonia novehoracensis (L.) 

 Willd. 



Shrubs or perennial herbs. 



Heads scorpioid, solitary in the axils of the upper leaves ; 

 canescent or toraentulose shrubs. 

 Leaves broadest at or near the middle, not conspicuously 



attenuate at the base. 1. Y. arbuscula. 



Leaves broadest above the middle, attenuate at the baso. 



Leaves broadly obcordate. 2. V. ohcordata. 



Leaves spatulate to elliptic. 3. V. hahamensis. 



Heads cymose, long-peduncled ; plant nearly glabrous ; leaves 



elongated-linear; herbaceous perennial. 4. V.insularis. 



Annual herb ; heads in terminal cymes. 5. V. cinerea. 



1. Vernonia arbuscula Less. Linnaea 6: 664. 1831. 



Vernonia arctata Gleason, Bull. Torr. Club 33: 185. 1906. 



A shrub, up to 8 dm. high, usually lower, more or less branched, the main 

 branches nearly erect, the twigs tomentose, rather densely leafy. Leaves ellip- 

 tic to oblong-obovate, 1-2 cm. long, acute or mucronate at the apex, narrowed 

 or obtuse at the base, tomentose beneath, glabrate above, the petioles 3-7 mm. 

 long; heads crowded at the ends of the twigs, several or numerous, sessile or 

 ehort-peduncled ; involucre campanulate, 4-5 mm. long, its bracts lanceolate, 

 tomentose; achenes 2.5 mm. long, pubescent; pappus nearly white. 



Pine-lands of New Providence and Andros. Endemic. Recorded as V. taha- 

 mensis by Coker and by Mrs. Northrop. The plant was erroneously attributed to 

 Mauritius by Lessing. (See Ekman, West Indian Yernoniae 58). Low Bushy 

 Vernonia. 



2. Vernonia obcordata Gleason, Bull. Torr. Club 33: 187. 1906. 



A much-branched shrub 6-9 dm. high, the branches crooked, the young 

 twigs angled, tomentose. Leaves crowded near the ends of the twigs, broadly 

 obcordate, 1.5 cm. long or less, about as wide as long, grey-tomentose, espe- 

 cially beneath, narrowed into petioles about 5 mm. long; heads few, sessile 

 among the leaves, 8-13-flowered ; involucre campanulate, 4-5 mm. long, its 

 bracts ovate-lanceolate, tomentose, acute; achenes hirsute, about 2 mm. long; 

 pappus yellow. 



Rocky scrub-lands at Moujean Harbor, Little Inagua. Endemic. Inagua 

 Vernonia. 



