874 LXV. COMfOSlT^. 



75. SENECIO, Linn. 

 (From senax, an old man ; in allusion to the bald receptacle and -v^hite 



hairy pappus.) 

 (Centropappus, Hook.f.) 



Flower-heads homoganious and discoid or heterogamous and radiate. In- 

 volucre of nearly equal bracts apparently in a single row, linear or very rarely 

 ovate, the margins often scarious and imbricate, with or rarely without a 

 few small ones at the base passing into the bracts on the peduncles. Eeceptacle 

 naked or pitted, the borders of the pits rarely toothed or produced into a few 

 short scales. Florets of the ray when present female or rarely neuter, ligulate. 

 Disk-florets tubular, hermaphrodite, 5-toothed. Anthers obtuse at the base, the 

 upper portion of the filament often thickened. Style-branches truncate, usually 

 bearing a tuft of minute hairs and very rarely a short obtuse appendage. Achenes 

 striate or angular. Pappus of numerous simple scabrous or denticulate bristles. 

 — Herbs or very rarely shrubs, glabrous-pubescent or clothed with cottony wool. 

 Leaves alternate, entire or divided, often rather thick. Flower-heads terminal, 

 solitary, corymbose or paniculate. Florets usually yellow, rarely purple or white. 



The largest genus among Composite, and ranging nearly over the whole world, although the 

 individual epecies are often very local. — Benth. 



Series I. B.adia.ti. — Floicer-heads radiate. 

 Erect leafy annuals. 

 Flower-heads few, large. Involucres broadly campanulate. Ligulce of 

 the ray longer than the involucre. 

 Leaves entire. Involuoral bracts united above the middle ... . 1. S. Gregorii. 

 Leaves pinnatifid with toothed lobes. Involuoral bracts united at the 



base only . . 2.5. platylepis. 



Flower-heads small. Involucres cylindrical. Ligulse of the ray very 

 small and rolled back. Ray-florets 6 or more, very small, yellow. 



Disk-florets above 10 7. S. brachyglostus. 



Flower-heads solitary. Involucral bracts wooUy-tomentose 3. &'. Daltoni. 



Flower-heads, including, the ray, rarely exceeding lin. diameter. Involu- 

 oral bracts prominently 2-ribbed i. S. lautus. 



Leaves all distinctly petiolate, ovate-lanceolate, toothed but undivided . 5. S.amygdaUfolius. 

 Leaves stem-clasping, the lower ones toothed at the end, the upper ones 



entire, broadly cordate-auriculate 6. S. velleioides. 



Series II. SiSCOidei. — I'lower-heads small, discoid. Involucres cylindrical. 

 Herbaceous perennials, sometimes woody at the base, or almost shrubby. 

 Involucral bracts usually 8. Florets under 20. 

 Leaves oblong or lanceolate, sessile or petiolate, with a dilated stem- 

 clasping base 8. S. odoratus. 



Leaves linear or lanceolate, narrowed at the base or petiolate, without 



any or with very small auricles 9. S. Gunninghamii. 



Leaves once or twice divided into long linear almost filiform segments 10. S. anethifolius. 

 Annuals. Slightly and loosely woolly.- Leaves pinnatifid 11. *S. vulgaris. 



1. S. G-regorii (after Hon. A. C. Gregory), F. v. M. in PI. Grey., quoted 

 Pu'p. Bahh. E.r]ied. 14; BentJi. i^7. ^«,stc. iii. 663. Apparently an erect annual, 

 under 1ft. high, slightly branched, glabrous and glaucous. Leaves sessile, linear 

 or linear-lanceolate, entire, 1 to Sin. long. Peduncles dilated under the solitary 

 rather large flower-head. Involucre campanulate, 3 to 4 lines or at length 

 nearly Jin. long, of about 10 to 12 rather broad bracts, concrete nearly to the 

 apex, without any small outer ones. Eay-florets about 10 to 12, the ligulse long 

 and spreading ; disk-florets numerous, exceeding the involucre. Achenes striate, 

 the more perfect ones 2| lines long and densely. hirsute, but some in the same 

 heads often smaller and glabrous. Pappus at first short, but lengthening out 

 to fin. 



Hab.: Mavanoa TAivev, I.eichhardt ; towards Cooper's Creek. 



'J'he species differs from all other Seiiecios known to me, in the involucre with the bracts 

 almost as closely connate as in irernena and Kuriops, but in other respects the characters are 

 entirely those of Senecin. — Benth. 



