530 Lxxi. coMPOSiTiE. [Vernonia 



that the name Molulu is a collective one of three or four species of 

 elegant bushes with white fragrant flowers belonging to Compositse, 

 and that the flowers furnish abundant food for bees. The word is 

 derived from the root lulu of the verb cululu, to taste bitter. 



28. V. amygdalina Delile, Cent. PI. Meroe, p. 41 (1826); 0. & 

 H. in Oliv. Fl. Trop. Afr. iii. p. 284. 



Vernonia sp. Ficalho, PI. Uteis, p. 206 (1884). 



Island of St. Thomas.— A small tree or an arborescent shrub, 

 with a medicinal bitter root and purple corollas. In mountainous 

 places at the outskirts of the forest at Monte Cafe^, between 1500 and 

 2000 ft. alt. Local name " Libd " ; fl. and fr. Dec. 1860. No. 3265. 



29. V. mumpuUensis Hiem, sp. n. 



Rootstock thick, woody, branched, decumbent and descending ; 

 stems several, erect or ascending, simple or nearly so, sulcate- 

 striate, more or less woolly with soft whitish curly hairs, rather 

 slender, 5 to 8 in. high, leafy ; leaves alternate, oval or oblong, 

 obtuse at both ends, sessile, entire or repand, somewhat pubescent 

 with soft whitish hairs chiefly beneath at the base and along the 

 margin and nerves, minutely punctulate, f to If in. long by -J to 

 f in. broad ; capitula sub-hemispherical, many-flowered, f to 1 in. 

 in diameter, terminal, solitary or two together ; peduncle ^J^ to 1 in. 

 long, densely pubescent; involucral bracts pluriseriate, bright 

 straw-coloured, pubescent and scattered with little glands outside, 

 glabrous inside, mostly apiculate ; the lips sometimes spreading ; 

 the outer ones lanceolate short : the inner ones continually 

 longer ; the innermost linear-oblong, persistent, f in. long ; flowers 

 purple ; corolla about ^ in. long, narrowly tubular, scattered with 

 minute glands outside, not much dilated above, rather shortly 

 5-lobed ; lobes narrowly lanceolate-oblong ; anther-base sagittate ; 

 style-branches puberulous, tapering (in one case 3) ; achenes ^^ in. 

 long, unequally 10-ribbed, irregularly quadrangular, glabrous on 

 the ribs except the base, somewhat hispid and glandular between the 

 ribs, with a broad basal callus ; pappus ^ in. long, golden-yellow, 

 biseriate ; the outer row short, all the setse scabrid-hispidulous. 



HuiLLA. — In bushy pastures submitted to burning in winter, near 

 Mumpulla ; fl. Oct. 1859. No. 3343. 



Nearly related to V. monocephala Harv. 



The description is taken from three specimens which had evidently 

 sprung from an old burnt stock, and which possibly do not represent 

 the normal condition of the species when allowed to grow up to its 

 full height. 



30. V. orchidorrhiza Welw. ms. in Herb., sp. n. 



A nearly glabrous, pale, yellowish-green, glossy herb, 4 to 10 

 in. high ; rhizome tuberous, fasciculate, the tubers suggesting 

 those of an orchis but their base produced into a descending 

 stout fibre; stems several, erect, straight, simple, glabrous 

 below, sometimes sub-obsoletely tomentose towards the apex, 

 slender, fragile, leafy throughout ; leaves alternate, narrowly 

 linear, crowded, directed upwards, rather thick, glabrous, glisten- 



