256 XXXIX. COMPOSITAE. [Afferatum. 



1. AGERATUM, Linn. 



Flower-heads discoid ; involucre hemispherical^ cylindrical^ or campanulate ; 

 involucral bracts imbricate, 2-seriate. Receptacle flat or nearly so ; scales 0. 

 Florets hermaphrodite, all tubular, 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse below. Style- 

 arms obtuse, elongated. Achenes angular. Pappus of 5 or 10 bristles or 

 chaffy scales, dilated at the base. Herbs, with opposite leaves and corymbose 

 flower-heads. 



Species, about 23, chiefly American. 



1. A. COnyzoides, L., Sp. Pi. 839. Annual, erect, branching, lft.-3ft. 

 high, more or less clothed with spreading hairs. Leaves opposite, petiolate, 

 crenate. Flower-heads in dense terminal corymbs, pale-blue or white ; involu- 

 cral bracts striate, acute. Achenes black. Pappus composed of 5 lanceolate 

 awned chaffy scales, often serrate below. — DC, Prod. v. 108 ; Hook., Exot. Fl. 

 t. 15 ; Benth., Fl. Austr. iv. 462. 



KERMADEO Islands, Cheeseman. 



A common weed in warm countries. I have not seen specimens from the New Zealand area. 

 Wild heliotrope. 



2. LAGENOPHORA, Cass. 

 Involucre nearly hemispherical ; bracts in about 2 series, broad or narrow, 

 with scarious margins. Receptacle convex ; scales 0. Ray-florets numerous in 

 1 series, female, ligulate or short and tubular, white or rarely purple. Disk- 

 florets numerous, hermaphrodite, tubular ; limb 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse 

 below. Style-arms of the disk-florets long and slender, slightly flattened. 

 Achenes compressed, contracted at the top, sometimes into a short beak. 

 Pappus 0. Small perennial herbs, with radical leaves and simple scapes bearing 

 solitary heads ; rarely the scapes are modified into erect or suberect leafy stems. 



Species, about 16, distributed through New Zealand, Australia, India, China, and extra- 

 tropical South America. All the New Zealand species are endemic. 



Etym. From the Greek, signifying a flagon and to bear, referring to the shape of the achenes. 

 * Stems slender, usually creeping at base, more or less branched below. Leaves radical or cauline. 

 eaves on slender petioles. Achenes with thickened margins, compressed . . 1. L. Porsteri. 

 Leaves on slender petioles, orbicular. Achenes slightly falcate .. .. 2. L. petiolata. 



Leaves cauline, ovate. Achenes lanceolate . . . . . . . . . . 3. L. Barkeri. 



Leaves cauline, oblong-spathulate. Achenes oblanceolate . . . . .. i. L. purpurea. 



** Stems never creeping. Leaves all radical, hirsute or pubescent. Boot-fibres fleshy in the last two. 



Leaves hirsute, oblong-obovate, lobed or pinuatifid ; petioles slender. Scapes 



very slender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. L. pimmtifida. 



Leaves spreading, hirsute or tomentose. Scape slender . . . . . . 6. L. lanata. 



Leaves ascending, glabrate or hirsute. Scape stout, strict . . . . .. * L. emphysopus. 



1. L. Forsteri, DC, Prod. v. 307. Rootstock slender, usually branched, 

 fin.-2in. long, all radical or stems leafy and decumbent. Leaves orbicular- 

 oblong obovate or almost orbicular, obtuse, more or less crenate or lobed, narrowed 

 into a slender petiole, glabrous glabrate or hirsute. Scape lin.-6in. long, naked 



