228 FLORA OF TASMANIA. [Composita. 
obscurity, partly owing to these species having been early imported into all the temperate quarters of the globe and 
becoming speedily naturalized ; partly to their being truly indigenous in some of the south-temperate parts of the 
globe, to which they have also been imported by man ; and most of all to the differences of opinion that exist as 
to what are species and what varieties amongst them, and which are enhanced greatly in the case of dried speci- 
mens. Thus in New Zealand the two forms or species, Sonchus oleraceus and S. asper, are both native, and the 
S. oleraceus has also been imported from Europe ; and it is a curious fact, that the natives who used to eat the wild form 
of the plant have latterly given up its use, preferring the introduced. It still however remains to be proved whether 
the wild New Zealand species does not attach itself to cultivated places, and hence may not on some occasions be 
assumed to be introduced. These are points requiring the greatest care in investigation, and that observations should 
be made at many remote parts of the Colony. In Tasmania only one native form of Sonchus appears, differing from 
both S. oleraceus and S. asper in the form, etc., of the achenium, an organ which is so variable in the genus that I 
hesitate to found a new species upon its Tasmanian modification. The S. asper itself, and the European form of 
S. oleraceus, are also found both in South-east and South-west Australia, but whether indigenous or introduced I 
cannot say. Mr. Mueller distinguishes two at Victoria as S. oleraceus and S. asper, and says that though I have united 
these species in the 'New Zealand Flora,' the Victoria specimens are perfectly distinct, and that besides the constant 
differences in their fruit, they differ in the shape and size of the leaves, and in the internal structure of the stem. These 
characters are however not so constant as Mr. Mueller supposes, the fruit especially being extremely variable, and pre- 
senting many intermediate modifications ; whilst the stems and foliage present great diversities of size, form, consistence, 
and internal structure in very many of the species of Ligulifiorous Composita. If such common plants as Sonchus 
asper and oleraceus were real! . ile, it must have been proved long ago, and botanists would not 
have required a century to make up their minds about them ; whereas from the days of Linnseus to the present 
opinions are divided upon the subject. It appears to me to be a matter of little importance whether we call such 
varying, closely allied forms, species or varieties, so long as they are properly discriminated. Only one other 
Sonchus has been found in Australia, near Port Macquarrie, of which I have seen an indifferent specimen.— The 
Tasmanian Sonchus is a tall, smooth, branching or simple, leafy, succulent, milky herb, with a hollow (?) grooved 
stem, and subumbellate corymbs of yellow heads ; it varies extremely in size and habit, from 6 inches to 2 feet 
high, and in the form and cutting of the foliage. Leaves ovate-oblong or linear-oblong, petiolate or sessile, entire, 
sinuate and irregularly toothed, or runcinate-pinnatifid, with large or small toothed lobes, sometimes quite linear- 
elongated and sessile and acuminate, with waved spinulose margins, in others broadly oblong, deltoid, or fiddle- 
shaped, with a long winged petiole ; caidine leaves clasping the stem, with broad auricles. Involucral scales in 
several series. Heads yellow, |-li inch across, of many ligulate florets. Receptacle smooth. Pappus of many 
series of simple, white, soft hairs. Achenium oblong, blunt at both ends, compressed, broadly winged, the disc 
grooved and ribbed. (Name from cropfros, hollow, in allusion to the hollow stems ; troyxos in Greek.) 
Additional Observations on the Tasmanian Composita. 
Eukybia capitellata (DC. Prodr. v. 266).— This is mentioned by Sonder (Linneea, xxv. 456) as having been 
found in Tasmania by Stuart. According to De Candolle it differs from E. axillaris in the pedicelled capitula. 
Eukybia ciliaia (Benth. ; see Sonder in Linnsea, xxv. 458). 
Eukybia Gunniana (DC). Sonder (Linnsea, xxv. 460) has well discussed the question of the value of the 
double and single pappus of Olearia and Eurybia, and has further reduced E. quercifolia, Cass., and Olearia phlo- 
gopappa, DC. (Aster phloc/opappus, Lab.), to E. Gunniana ; that able author has also reduced Aster stellulatus, 
Lab., to E. ftdtida, Cass., and suggested its being a variety of E. Gunniana. 
Eurybia liuifolia is referred by Sonder to Lindley's E. glutinosa (Bot. Reg. N. S. xii. Misc. 68), and is said 
to differ from E. glutescens (Sonder, Linnaea, 1. c.) in the striated, not angled, branches, narrower, shorter, not sea- 
