856 LXV. COMPOSITE. [PodoUpis. 



5. P. I.essoni (after — Lesson), Benth. Fl. Austr. Hi. 606. A slender erect 

 branching annual of \ to 1ft., loosely woolly or at length glabrous. Leaves 

 small, from ovate to lanceolate, stem-clasping and sometimes slightly decurrent. 

 Peduncles filiform. Involucres hemispherical, about 4 lines diameter, the very 

 numerous imbricate thinly scarious bracts broadly ovate, obtuse or almost acute, 

 ciliate, the claws of the inner ones linear, not at all or scarcely glandular. Florets 

 all nearly equal and longer than the involucre with narrow lobes, the outer 

 female ones more slender, irregularly 3 or 4-lobed. Pappus of few capillary 

 bristles, barbellate towards the end, usually reduced in the achenes of the ray to 

 a single bristle or entirely wanting, — Panmtia Lessonii, Cass.; DC. Prod; vi. 

 162 ; Steetz in PI. Preiss. i. 461 ; Pancetia Muelleri, Sond. in Linntea, xxv. 505 ; 

 Podolepis Qilberti, Turcz. in Bull. Mosc. 1851, i. 195. 



Hab.: Southern interior. 



6. P. Siemssenia (a former generic name), F. v. M. Herb.; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 iii. 606. A slender glabrous much-branched annual of ^ to 1ft. Leaves linear. 

 Flower-heads small, on filiform peduncles. Involucre turbinate, about 3 lines 

 long, the scarious laminss of the bracts oblong, imbricate, the outer ones short. 

 Eay-fiorets 3 or 4-lobed, ligulate or irregular, exceeding the longest involucral 

 bracts ; disk-florets with 5 narrow lobes but often slit on one side nearly to the 

 base. Pappus-bristles not numerous, exceedingly fine, not perceptibly barbellate, 

 shorter than the corolla. — Sisnmenia capillaris, Steetz in PI. Preiss. i. 4G7. 



Hab.: Towards Cooper's Creek. 



50. CARPESIUM, Linn. 



(Involucral bracts resembling bits of straw.) 



Involucre hemispheric or subglobose ; bracts in few series, inner ones broad- 

 obtuse, dry, outer with herbaceous or foliacious tips. Eeceptacle flat, naked. 

 Anther-bases sagittate, tails slender. Style-branches linear, obtuse, connivent 

 till late. Achenes elongate, striate with a (oft§n glandular) beak surmounted bj 

 a corona ; pappus none. — Erect branched herbs. Leaves alternate. Heads 

 terminal or axillary, sessile or pedunculate, usually drooping, heterogamous, 

 disciform, yellow ; outer florets female, many-seriate, fertile, slender, 3 to 5- 

 toothed ; disk-florets hermaphrodite, fertile, slender ; limb slightly dilated, 5- 

 toothed. 



There are but few species, and are met with in southern Europe and temperate and sub- 

 tropical Asia. 



1. C. cernuum (heads drooping), Linn. Stem and branches pubescent, often 

 more or less cottony. Leaves subsessile, elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse, sinuate- 

 toothed. Heads terminal, drooping, fin. diameter, with large leafy spreading 

 bracts at the base. 

 Hab.: Near Brisbane and a few other southern localities, but decidedly indigenous. 



51. -AMBROSIA, Linn: 



(Food of the heathen divinities, as nectar was their drink.) 



Flower-heads unisexual, of maleflorets small, spicate or racemose, many-flowered, 

 with a broadly hemispherical, gamophyllous, shortly lobed, herbaceous involucre ; 

 receptacle nearly plane, with or nearly without filiform palese ; female heads 

 sessile or clustered in the upper axils, 1-flowered, apetalous. Male corolla white, 

 regular 5-fid ; anthers free or nearly so, base entire. Female involucre ovoid 

 Or subglobose, closed over the achene, usually with 4 to 6 tubercles or short 

 spines, narrowed above into a short beak. — Herbs or undershrubs, more or less 

 hairy, with alternate (or opposite) bipinnately divided leaves. 



