884 LXV. COMPOSITiE. [Lactiica. 



6 to 10 or 12, of a pale-yellow. Aehenes much flattened, obovate-oblong, 

 striated, varying in colour from white to nearly bl^ck, with a slender beak 

 about the length of the achene. — Benth. in British Flora i. 485. 



Hab.: This European weed has become naturalised in cultivated fields, and a few years ago, 

 at Rosewood, was considered injurious to stock. 

 The milky juice, when inspissated, has been used as a substitute for opium. — Lindley. 



88. SONCHUS, Linn. 



(Stems hollow.) 



Involucre ovoid, with imbricate bracts, and usually becoming conical after 

 flowering. Beceptacle without scales. Florets all lignlate. Aehenes flattened 

 and striate, not beaked. Pappus of numerous fine bristles, usually soft and 

 white. — Herbs either annual or in species not Australian perennial or shrubby. 

 Leaves alternate, usually toothed or lobed. Flower-heads small or large in 

 loose corymbs or panicles. Florets yellow or (in species sometimes separated 

 from the genus) blue. 



A considerable genus, ranging over the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere, the 

 Australian species extending over the whole range of the genus, and introduced into* almost 

 every part of the world. — Benth. 



Annual. Leaves usually bordered by irregular acute or prickly teeth . . . 1. S. oleraceut. 

 Perennial. Leaves quite entire, or sparingly toothed . . . 2. S. maritimui. 



1. S> oleraceus (an esculent pot herb), Linn. Spec. 1116 ; Benth. Fl. Austr. 

 iii. 679. An erect annual, with a hollow stem, 1 to 3 or even 4ft high. Leaves 

 thin, bordered by irregular acute or prickly teeth, otherwise either undivided or 

 pinnatifid with a broad heartshaped or triangular terminal lobe, the upper ones 

 narrow and clasping the stem with short auricles. Flower-heads in a short 

 corymbose terminal panicle, sometimes almost umbellate. Florets of a pale 

 yellow. — Steetz in PI. Preiss. i. 489 ; 8. asper, Fuchs.; Hook. f. Fl. Tasm. i. 

 227 ; Steetz in PI. Preiss. 1. 489 ; S. cUiatm, Lam., and S. fallax, Wallr., DC. 

 Prod. vii. 18.'5. 



Hab.: A common weed throughout the colony. 



Mr. Bentham correctly mentions, Fl. Austr. iii. 680, that there are 2 marked varieties in 

 Australia of this species (those met with in Queensland) ; in the one (S. asper) the ribs of the 

 aehenes are perfectly smooth, in the other (for which the name of S. oleraceus is more specially 

 retained) they are marked with transverse asperities. 



2. S. maritimus (coastal), Linn.; Boiss. Fl. Orient iii. 797 ; Hook. Fl. Brit. 

 Ind. iii. 414. A glaucous glabrous perennial with creeping rootstock. Stem- 

 branching above. Leaves linear-oblong, quite entire, or sparingly sinuate- 

 toothed, the stem ones f -amplexioaul, with acute auricles. Heads few, peduneled, 

 glabrous. Aehenes ellipsoid, subcompressed, inargins thickened faces with a 

 thick midrib and 2 more slender lateral ones. — S. arvensis, var. in Clarke Comp. 

 Ind. 276. 



Hab.: Islands of Moreton Bay. 



89. *TRAGOPOGON, Linn. 

 (Goat's beard.) 

 Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate. Bracts 1 -seriate,, longer or 

 shorter than the florets, herbaceous, acuminate, sometimes connate at the base, 

 no outer ones. Eeceptacle flat or convex, pitted, margins of the pits often 

 cartilaginous. Aehenes slender, terete, 6-ahgled, 5 to 10-ribbed, ribs smooth or 

 murioate, basal areole broad concave, inner usually with a slender beak. Pappus 

 hairs numerous, 1 -seriate, feathery, connate into a basal ring, 5 to 10 longer 



