880 LXV. COMPOSITE. [Centaurea. 



1. C. australis (Australian), Benth. and Hook. Gen. PI. A rigid erect 

 herb, probably biennial, attaining 2ft. or rather more, simple or scarcely 

 branched, with a little loose cottony wool. Leaves petiolate, oblong-lanceolate, 

 either toothed only, or more or less deeply pinnatifid or pinnately divided, the 

 lower ones 6in. long or more on long petioles, the upper ones few, small, and 

 nearly sessile. Flower-heads solitary on a long terminal peduncle. Involucre 

 ovoid, and 1-J to 2in. long when in flower, more globular when in fruit, the 

 outer bracts shorty with a nearly orbicular appendage, the inner ones gradually 

 longer, the innermost as long as the florets, tapering into narrow-linear tips 

 with scarcely any scarious appendage. Style-branches often remaining united 

 to the end. Achenes smooth, slightly striate, crowned by a slightly projecting 

 border under the pappus.— I/eiw«a australis, Gaudich. in Freyc. Voy. 462 t. 92 ; 

 Benth. Fl. Austr. iii. 457.. 



Hab.: Condamine River and head of the Gwydir, Leichhardt; Dawson B,iveY, F. v. Mueller ; 

 common on southern downs. 



2. *C. cyanus (blue), Linn. Cornflower or Corn-cockle. Annual or 

 biennial, erect, slender, cottony. Leaves narrow ; radical entire or lyrate- 

 pinnatifid ; cauline linear. Heads ovoid. Involucral bracts oblong, obtuse, 

 cottony ; tips broad with brown, scarious, toothed margins, which are decurrent 

 on the sides of the bract ; teeth triangular. Eay-florets large, spreading, often 

 blue. Achenes grey, silky, longer than the middle row of pappus hairs. — DC. 

 Prod. vi. 578 ; Clarke Comp. Ind. 242 ; C. lanata, Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii. 644. 



Hab.: European. Met with as a stray from garden culture. 



8. C. melitensis (Maltese), Linn.; DC. Prod. vi. 593 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 iii. 458. Star Thistle. An erect rigid annual of 1 to 2ft., with a little 

 white cottony wool, or nearly glabrous. Radical leaves pinnately divided ; 

 stem-leaves narrow, decurrent, entire or slightly toothed. Flower-heads 

 terminal, sessile above the last leaves, solitary or 2 or 3 in a cluster. Involucre 

 above ^in. long, the bracts rigid, the appendage of the outer ones small with 

 short palmate spines, of the intermediate ones consisting of a rigid spine 

 spreading to from 2 to 4 lines, with short divaricate spines at the base, the 

 inner ones tapering into a very short simple spine. Florets yellow. Pappus of 

 several series of bristles, the outer ones short, the intermediate gradually longer, 

 the innermost row very short. — 6'. apula, Lam.; DC. I.e. 



Hab. : A native of the Mediterranean region, now spread over cultivated and waste places in 

 many of the warmer regions both of the New and the Old World, especially near the sea. 



4. *C. SOlstitialis (flowering at midday), Linn. An annual with the habit, 

 foliage and yellow florets of C. melitensis, but with a much longer and stouter 

 spine to the intermediate involucral bracts, whilst the inner ones have a jagged 

 scarious appendage without any spine. 



Hab.: European. Met with now and again on rubbish-heaps in Brisbane. 



82. MICROSERIS, Don. 



(Greek; small lettuce.) 



(Monermios, Hook./.; Phyllopappus, Walp.) 



Involucre of several nearly equal bracts in about 2 rows with a few short 



imbricate ones outside. Receptacle without scales. Florets all ligulate. 



Achenes cylindrical with smooth longitudinal ribs, not beaked. Pappus of linear 



