Thrincia.] composite. 279 



On dry sandy or gravelly heaths and pastures, also in cultivated fields (amongst 

 turnips, Sec), on a similar soil ; rare ? Fl. June — October. 0. 



In a sandy turnip-field near Cliff firm, by the footpath to Apse and America, 

 1849. 



Root annual, long, whitish, tapering, simple or with a few lateral fibres, full of 

 a bitter milky juice, as is the whole plant. Steins several, in the larger and more 

 luxuriant plants sometimes very numeioiis, from about 4 or 6 to 12 or 15 inches 

 high, the central erect, the rest spreading, ascending or decumbent at base, some- 

 what glaucous, subterete, a little compressed arfd sulcate, angular, hollow in the 

 centre, rigid, quite glabrous, flexuose, simple or most usually more or less branched 

 from about the middle upwards, ofteu in very gross specimens in a proliferous or 

 subumbellate manner, the branches much waved, elongate, bearing each a solitary 

 flower on their slightly and very gradually enlarged summits. Leaves bright 

 green, almost wholly radical, numerous, spreading, the outermost lying flat on the 

 ground, oblong-ligulate, obtuse and rounded at the end, variable in the mode and 

 degree of division, mostly sinuate-runcinate or sinuate-dentate, with acute shallow 

 teeth or lobes tipped with a minute callosity, occasionally more deeply cleft ; mar- 

 gin of the leaves ciliated with short, distant, bristly hairs, of which a few are 

 occasionally observable on the upper side of the leaves and along the midrib 

 underneath, otherwise they are quite glabrous. Flowers (anthodia) erect, very 

 small, scarcely half an inch in diameter, bright yellow verging upon orange. 

 Involucre oblong and cylindrical in bud, enlarged, conical and dilated at base in 

 and after flowering; involucral bracts regularly imbricated, the inferior and outer 

 not numerous, elliptical-oblong or ovate-elliptical, unequal, obtuse, much shorter 

 than the narrow elongate-lanceolate inner ones, which are very little spreading at 

 the tips ; all erect in flower, much enlarged, becoming more acute and finally 

 reftexed in seed, their margins (especially of the outer ones) coloured, ciliate- 

 pubesceut at their tips, otherwise glabrous, keeled. Florets pretty numerous, very 

 little exceeding the inner involucral bracts In length, minute, glabrous, the rai/ 

 very broad, 5-toothed, tube very long, slender and membranaceous, scarcely at all 

 cupped at the top as in most of this order, but preserving an almost cylindrical 

 form, with an almost imperceptible enlargement upwards to the ray, at which part 

 it is surrounded by a few long, yellow, jointed hairs. Style exserted, yellow and 

 2-cleft at summit, the lobes spreading or recurved. Palea as long as the pappus 

 and involucral bracts, membranaceous and diaphanous, linear-lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, with a very long, slender, green or purplish point, single-ribbed. Achenes 

 forming a globular head about an inch in diameter, purplish brown, hnear-elUp- 

 tical, the point of insertion on the receptacle oblique, with a lateral tumid and 

 shining gland or callosity, a little compressed, strongly many-ribbed and furrowed 

 lengthwise, the ridges closely beset with minute, erect, spine-like denticulations 

 increasing in size at the summit. Exterior row of seeds truncate or (rarely) 

 beaked, those of the centre attetmated into a very slender scabrous beak about 

 their own length. Pappus plumose, dirty white, few- (2- or 3-) rowed, scabrous, 

 twice or thrice the length of the seeds, persistent : — in H. radicala the pappus is 

 smooth, or very slightly rough towards the tip only, and many-rowed. 



»*** " Receptacle without scales. Pappus feathery or on the exterior fruits 

 scaly'' — Bab. Man. 



XXX. Thrincia, Roth. Thrincia. 



" Achenes tapering into a beak, the outer ones enveloped by the 

 leaves of the involucre. Pappus of the marginal florets forming 

 a short scaly cup, of the rest long, feathery. Receptacle naked. 

 Involucre imbricated." — Br. Fl. 



1. T. hirta, Eoth. Hairy Thrincia. " Leaves lanceolate sub- 

 sinuate -dentate somewhat hispid with frequently forked hairs, 



