356 XXXIX. COMPOSITAE. [Microseris. 



midrib hispid; upper oblong-lanceolate, clasping. Heads many, lin.-l|-in. in 

 diameter, usually in pairs, sessile or shortly peduncled. Florets bright blue ; ligule 

 truncate, 5-toothed. Achenes angled. 



Frequent in waste places and by roadsides from Auckland to Otago, but often sporadic. 

 Chicory. Jan. to March. Europe. 



23. MICROSERIS, D. Don. 



Involucre herbaceous, campanulate ; bracts few, nearly equal, 2-seriate, 



with a few shorter imbricating at the base, often with black tips. Receptacle 



naked. Florets all ligulate. Achene linear, cylindric, ribbed. Pappus of 



linear flat scales, bearing simple or plumose bristles, 2-seriate. Scapigerous 



herbs, with milky juice and usually radical pinnatifid leaves. 



A small genus of about 20 species, 1 restricted to Australia and New Zealand, 1 from extra- 

 tropical South America, the others from North America. 



Name, from the Greek, signifying small and a lettuce. 



I. M. Forsteri, Hook.f.,Fl. N.Z. i. 151. A glabrous scapigerous peren- 

 nial, with fleshy or almost tuberous roots. Leaves radical, 2in.— lOin. long, 

 narrow-lanceolate, toothed or irregularly pinnatifid. Scape usually exceeding 

 the leaves. Heads Jin.— fin. long; involucral bracts linear, acute, with mem- 

 branous borders, shorter than the florets. Achenes ribbed. Pappus-bristles 

 shortly plumose or sometimes only serrulate. — Fl. Tasm. i. 226, t. 66; 

 Handbk. 164; Benth., Fl. Austr. vi. 676. M. pyginaea, Raoul, Enum. 45. 

 Monermios Lawrencii, Hook. f. in Lond. Journ. Bot. vi. 124. Scorzonera 

 scapigera, Banks and Sol. MSS. and Icon. ; G. Forst., Prod. n. 534; A. Cunn,, 

 Precurs. n. 430. 



NORTH and SOUTH Islands: from Cimbridge, Wa'kato, and the East Cape southwards to 

 Dunedin ; common. Sea-level to 2,800ft. Jan., Feb. Stated to have been found at the Bay of 

 Islauds by R. Cunningham, but apparently in error. Also in Australia. 



•TOLPIS, Adans. 

 Involucres campanulate, pubescent or almost tomentose ; outer bracts short, 

 spreading, narrow-linear ; inner l-2-S6riate, subulate-acuminate, erect. Eeceptacle 

 flat, pitted. Florets all ligulate, exceeding the bracts, yellow. Achenes subterete, 

 5-8-ribbed, truncate at the apex, the outer embraced by the involucral bracts, 

 puberulous. Pappus in 1 series of few short rigid bristles or with few longer bristles 

 or scales intermixed. Annual or perennial herbs, rarely suffruticose. Stems slender, 

 dichotomous. Leaves lanceolate, incised dentate or pinnatifid. Heads laxly 

 corymbose. 



* T. umbellata, Bertol. in Mem. Soc. Evml. Gen. ii. (1808) 133. Annual. 

 Stems straggling, slender, somewhat dichotomously branched, grooved, glabrate. 

 Leaves chiefly radical, 2in.-3in. long, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute, dentate, 

 puberulous or pubescent. Corymb spreading, very lax. Peduncles long, filifoi-m, 

 almost capillary, pubescent, thickened upwards, proliferous. Heads \vi\. in diameter ; 

 outer bracts spreading, rigid. Achenes cylindric, truncate above, 5-8-ribbed ; the 

 outer embraced by the involucral bracts, fertile. Pappus-bristles 1-seriace, very 

 short and rigid, forming a crown or fringe ; the inner mostly sterile, free, with 4 long 

 scabrid bristles amongst the shorter. 



NORTH Island : Remuera ; plentiful ; Cheeseman I 



