Note on Satissiirea Microcephala FRANCHET. 



By 

 S. Matsuda. 



I have received from Kiang-su and Che-kiang specimens of 

 a species of Saussurea. Judging from Franchet's description it 

 is the plant named 5. microcephala by the French botanist. 

 He communicated the description of it to Hemsley who first 

 published it in Journal of the Linnean Society — Vol. XXVI. p. 

 466. Franchet saw a single flowering specimen of the plant 

 which lacks the lower portion of the stem. Fortunately, I got 

 both flowering and fruiting specimens, and I venture to add a 

 few lines to the original description. 



The outer involuclar bracts short, acute, inner ones gradu- 

 ally longer, the longest being 10 mm., all (except the outer- 

 most) with sub-orbicular appendages, the margin of which is 

 very slightly lacerated; corolla-tube slender, limb 5mm. long, 

 achene dark brown, sub-cylindrical, sub-3-ridged, 3^ mm. long ; 

 inner pappus-hairs feathery, base thickened and connate into a 

 ring, outer of rigid bristles. 



The lower stem-leaves long petiolate, oblong, irregularly 

 lobed, lobes obtuse, mucronate. The heads when old appear much 

 larger than described by Franchet, owing to the expansion 

 of pappus-hairs. 



There is another species of Saussureay which is reported 

 from Central China by Dr. Diels who called it by the name of 

 S. microcephala— Bnglcr, Bot. Jahrb. XXIX. 624. Comparing 

 the description of the German botanist with that of Franchet, 

 I notice the two plants bearing the same specific name are of 

 quite different species of Saussurea. 



