CICHOEIACEAE. 429 



rounded by a ciliate indusium. Ovules 1 in each cavity, or 2 in 1-celled 

 ovaries, erect. Berry with a fleshy exocarp and a bony or woody endocarp. 

 [Latin, referring to the irregular flowers.] About 60 species, mostly Austra- 

 lian, the following typical. 



1. Scaevola Plumiferil (L.) Vahl, Symb. 2: 36. 1791. 



Lobelia Plumierii L. Sp. PI. 929. 1753. 

 Scaevola Lobelia Murr. Syst. ed. 13, 178. 1774. 



Perennial, nearly glabrous, more or less shrubby, 6-15 dm. high, much 

 branched and straggling. Leaves alternate, obovate, 4^6 cm. long, entire, 

 shining, narrowed into very short winged petioles, or nearly sessile, with a 

 tuft of silky hairs in each axil; peduncles shorter than the leaves; calyx-lobes 

 much broader than high, rounded; corolla glabrous without, about 2.5 cm. long, 

 the tube shorter than the lobes, the lobes nearly linear, with broad crisped 

 wings; stamens nearly as long as the corolla- tube, hanging through the cleft; 

 berry oval, black, juicy, 2-seeded, 10-14 mm. long. 



Coastal rocks and sands, throughout the archipelago : — Beitnuda ; Florida ; West 

 Indies and Caribbean Mexico ; tropical Africa. Inkbbkey. Black Soap. Catesby, 

 1 : pi. 79. 



Family 4. CICHOEIACEAE Reiehenb. 



Chicory Family. 



Herbs (two Pacific Island genera trees), almost always with milky, 

 acrid or bitter juice, alternate or basal leaves, and yellow, rarely pink, 

 blue, purple, or white flowers in involuerate heads (anthodia). Bracts of 

 the involucre in 1 to several series. Receptacle of the head flat or flattish, 

 naked, scaly (paleaceous), smooth, pitted, or honeycombed. Flowers all 

 alike (heads homogamous), perfect. Calyx-tube completely adnate to the 

 ovary, its limb (pappus) of scales, or simple or plumose bristles, or both, 

 or wanting. Corolla gamopetalous, with a short or long tube, and a strap- 

 shaped (ligulate) usually 5-toothed limb (ray). Anthers connate into a 

 tube around the style, the sacs sagittate or auricled at the base, not tailed, 

 usually appendaged at the summit, the simple pollen-grains usually 12- 

 sided. Ovary 1-celled; ovule 1, anatropous; style very slender, 2-cleft, or 

 2-lobed, the lobes minutely papillose. Fruit an achene. Seed erect; endo- 

 sperm none; radicle narrower than the cotyledons. About 70 genera and 

 1,500 species, of wide geographic distribution. 



Achenes truncate. 1. Sonchus. 



Achenes narrowed or beaked at the summit. 2. Lactuca. 



1. SONCHUS L. Sp. PI. 793. 1753. 



Annual or perennial succulent herbs, with alternate, mostly auriculate- 

 clasping, entire dentate lobed or pinnatifid, prickly-margined leaves, and large 

 or middle-sized, peduncled, corymbose or paniculate heads of yellow flowers. 

 Involucre ovoid or eampanulate, usually becoming thickened and more or less 

 conic at the base when old, its bracts herbaceous or membranous, imbricated 

 in several series, the outer successively smaller. Receptacle flat, naked. Bays 

 truncate and 5-toothed at the apex. Anthers sagittate at the base. Style- 

 branches slender. Achenes oval, oblong, or linear, more or less flattened, 10- 



