hocwrplia. COMPOSITiE. 257 



90. MEL ANTHlfeRA, Rohr. (M^as, black, and SLvO-qpi, used for anther.) 



— Scabrous herbs (chiefly tropical An::-rican) ; with quadrangular branching 

 stems, o]ii>osite and sometimes lobed petioled leaves, and pedunculate heads: 

 corolla wliite and anthers blackish in the genuine (rayless) species. Fl. summer. 



— Rohr, Skriv. Kat. Selsk. Kiob. 1792, ii. 213 ; DC. Prodr. v. 544. Melanan- 

 thera, Michx. Fl. ii. 106. 



M. hastata, Michx. 1. c. Stem 3 to 6 feet high from a perennial root, spotted: leaves 



from oviite to ovate-lanceolate, or uppermost lanceolate, some of them commonly and vari- 

 ously lla^tately 3-lobed, unequally serrate : bracts of the involucre broadly lanceolate, of the 

 receptacle spiuescently acuminate : heads in fruit half-inch in diameter. — DC. Prodr. v. 545. 

 il/. trilobata, panduroformis, &c., Cass. IJit-t. xxix. 485. Bidens niiea, L. (Spec. ii. 833 (Dill. 

 Elth. t. 46, 47). Athanasia hastata, Walt. Car. 201. — iloist ground, near the coast, S. Caro-' 

 Una to Louisiana. (Mex., AV. Ind., &c.) 



(lO ^.- M. deltoidea, IIkhx, l. c. Leaves ovate to deltoid or obscurely hastate : heads smaller: 

 " bratts of the involucre ovate, of the receptacle only mucronate. — DC. 1. c. M. urticn-julia, 



Ca.^.-,. L c. M. Liniia;i,llBK. B/rfens niVwi, L. 1. c. as to DOl. Elth. t. 47, f. 3. C'alea aspera, 

 Jacq. Ic. Rar. t. 583.— 8. Florida. (W. Ind. to S.Am.) 

 M. lanceolata, Bexth. a foot or two high : leaves lanceolate (1 to 3 inches long, 2 to 5 

 lines wide), somewhat serrate: brauts of the involucre oblong-ovate, of the receptacle cuspi- 

 dately mucronate, short: disk about 4 lines in diameter. — Vidensk. Jledel. 1852-3, 88. ^f. 

 microphi//la, Steetz in Seem. Bot. Herald, 156 (same year?). M. angustifolia, A. Eich. ex 

 Griseb. Cat. Cub. 154. — S. Florida, Garber, &c. (W. Ind., Centr. Am.) 



91. "VARILLA, Gray. (Native Mexican name of this and some similar 

 plants.) — Shrubby or suffrutescent, glabrous ; with linear and narrovr entire and 

 sessile thickish or fleshy lea\'es, and pedunculate rather small heads, either corym- 

 bosely cymose or solitary; the flowers yellow. — PI. Fendl. 106, & PI. Wright. 

 i. 12y. — Two known species. 



V. Mexicana, Gray, 1. c. Shrub about 5 feet high, much branched : branches very leafy, 

 terminated by a cyme of numerous short-peduncled heads : leaves uot succulent, linear (1 to 3 

 inches long, at most 2 lines wide), attenuate to both ends, opposite : involucre somewhat tur- 

 binate, 2 lines long, half the length of the rather narrow head : pappus of 5 to 10 or 15 slender 

 short bristles (which commonly hear 3 or 4 salient setulose denticulations), somewhat irreg- 

 ular, in length fully equal to the diameter of the akene. — Coaliuila, near Parras, Gregg, 

 Wislizenus, Palmer, Sx., not yet found within L". S. (Mex.) 



V. Texana, Gray. Low, suffrutescent, much branched and very leafy at base : leaves very 

 succulent, terete, mostly alternate, obtuse: head larger, sohtary on a long terminal- and 

 minutely bracteate peduncle : involucre not turbinate, very much shorter than the broadly 

 ovoid conical disk : pappus none. — PI. Wright, i. 103. — Saline soil, from the Xueces to the 

 Rio Grande, S. Texas, Wright, Tre'ciil, Bigdow, Palmer. (Adj. Mex.) 



92. ISOCARPHA, R. Br. (From lo-os, equal, Kap<i>o^, chaff, the chaffy 

 bracts of the receptacle and of the involucre similar.) — Tropical American herbs ; 

 with small heads of white or whitish flowers, either solitary or glomerate at the 

 summit of a naked peduncle. — Trans. Linn. Soc. xii. 110; Benth. & Hook. Gen. 

 ii. 365. Duiiantia, DC. Prodr. v. 62G. 



I. oppositifolia, R. Br. 1. c. Pubescent : stems slender, 1 to 3 feet high from a peren- 

 nial?) root, paniculately branched: leaves opposite, lanceolate, narrowed to both ends, 

 triplinerved, entire or sparingly denticulate : heads commonly in threes, in fruit 4 or 5 Unes 

 long, narrow, with turbinate involucre : bracts of the involucre aud receptacle pointed, becom- 

 ing rigid and the receptacle columnar. — Galea oppositifolia, L. JJunantia Achi/ranthes, DO. 

 Prodr. V. 672; Deless. Ic. Sel. iv. t. 37. — S. borders of Texas on the Rio Grande, Schott. 

 (Adj. Mex., W. Ind.) 



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