Senecio. | XLIII, COMPOSITA. 245 
Achenes cylindrical, with a pappus of simple hairs, usually soft and white. 
Branches of the style truncate at the top, usually with a tuft of minute 
hairs. 
This, the largest of all Composite genera, is spread over every quarter 
of the globe, although the majority of species occupy each a small area. 
Several species which have not the small outer bracts to the involucre 
were distinguished by Linnzus under the name of Cineraria, but the charac- 
ter has proved so uncertain that modern botanists have given it up. 
Leaves cut and divided. 
Florets of the ray very small and rolled back, or entirely wanting. 
Root annual. 
Ray none. Flower-heads almost Reesile, in dense corymbs 
orclusters. . 
Ray small and rolled back or rarely wanting. Flower- 
heads stalked, in loose corymbs. 
Whole plant very viscid. Involucres broadly cylindrical, 
of about 20 bracts, with 2 or 3 short outer ones. 
Achenes glabrous. 2. S. viscosus, 
Plant rarely viscid. Involucres narrow, of about 12 to 
Beene tt the outer ones scarcely Perea le Achenes 
silky 
Florets of the ray conspicuous and spreading. 
Root annual. 
1. S. vulgaris. 
3. S. sylvaticus. 
Achenes with short silky hairs : : 4 : . 4. S. squalidus. 
Achenes quite glabrous . ; . - - : . 5. S. aquaticus. 
Rootstock perennial. 
Branches spreading. Corymb loose and irregular. Achenes 
all glabrous. 
Stem tall and erect. Cor ymb rather dense and terminal. 
Achenes of the disk hairy. 
Leaves irregularly pinnate, with a broad terminal lobe. 
Achenes of the ray glabrous. Rootstock notcreeping 6. 8. Jacobaa. 
Leaves pinnate; the lobes all narrow. Achenes all hairy. 
Rootstock shortly creeping . a : . ? . 7. S. eruetfolius. 
Leaves undivided, entire or toothed. 
Involucres with small, fine outer bracts at the base. Leaves 
acutely toothed. 
Leaves cottony underneath. Ray of 12 to 20 florets 
Leaves glabrous. Ray of 5 to 8 florets 
Invyolucres of a single row of bracts, without small outer ones. 
Leaves entire or obtusely toothed. 
Annual or biennial. Leaves downy. Achenes Bnrgaet 
5. S. aquaticus. 
. 8. &. paludosus. 
. 9. S. saracenicus, 
strongly ribbed 10. S. palustris. 
Rootstock perennial. Leaves loosely cottony underneath. 
Achenes cottony ; the ribs scarcely prominent . ‘ . 11. S. campestris. 
Several exotic species are much cultivated for ornament, especially the 
double-flowering S. elegans from the Cape, iS. Cimeraria from the shores of 
the Mediterranean, and the numerous varieties of one or two Canary Island 
species, known to our gardeners as greenhouse Cinerarias. 
1. S. vulgaris, Linn. (fig. 540). Gtroundsel Senecio, Groundsel.—An 
erect, branching annual, from 6 inches to near a foot high, glabrous or 
bearing a little loose, cottony wool. Leaves pinnatifid, with ovate, toothed 
or jagged lobes. Flower-heads in close terminal corymbs or clusters. In- 
volucres cylindrical, of about 20 equal bracts, with several outer smaller 
ones. Florets almost always all tubular, with very rarely any ray what- 
ever. Achenes slightly hairy. 
A very common weed of cultivation throughout Europe and Russian 
Asia, but not extending into the tropics, and less disposed than many others 
to migrate with man. Abundant in Britain. £7. all the year round. 
