234 



CLASSIFICATION 



Adenostemma viscosum Is the common barha-keshutti, 

 a weed; Wedelia calendulacea is the keshraj of Indian 

 kavirajes; Elephantopus scaber, Grangea maderas- 

 patana, Sphceranthus indicus, Ccesulia axillaris, Cen- 

 tipeda orbicularis, Crepis j'aponica, Sonchus oleraceus, 

 &c., are some of the common weeds. Siegesbeckia 

 orientalis (fig. 201) is a shrub with five highly glan- 

 dular, sticky, spreading, spathulate involucral bracts, 

 common in Chhota Nagpur and Dera Dun. 



The small flowers of this family are rendered con- 



Fig. 201. — Siegesbeckia orientalis 

 i, Glandular involucre. 



spicuous by being aggregated together into heads. 

 The effect is heightened by the ray-florets being often 

 ligulate and differently coloured from the disk-florets. 

 Another effect of crowding is that numerous flowers of 

 the same head are simultaneously pollinated by insects 

 which creep over them in search of nectar or pollen. 

 In the first stage of flowering (anthesis) the anthers, 

 and in the second stage of flowering the stigmatic 

 papillae, are so far above the general bend of the 

 head that insects must rub against them and cross- 

 pollinate them. But in several cases self-pollination 

 is possible and does take place, for the branches of 

 the style bend back and apply to the stigmatic papillae 

 the pollen still clinging to the sweeping hairs of the 



