444 COMPOSITE. [Centipeba. 



ATDTindant within the area especially on the bants of streams and irriga- 

 tion channels. Flowers in January and February. Disteib. Through- 

 out India and in all warm countries. It is found up to 6,000 ft. on the 

 Himalaya. 



5. CENTIPEDA, Lour. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 317. 



Annnal or perennial herbs. Leaves alternate, entire or toothed. 

 Meads small, sessile on the branches or racemose, heterogamous, dis- 

 ciform, yellow. Outer flowers female, many-seriate, fertile ; corolla 

 minute, obscurely lobed. Disk-flowers 2-sexual, few, fertile ; tube 

 short, limb campanulnte, 4-fid. Involucre hemispheric ; bracts 

 2-seriate, spreading in fruit. Meceptacle naked. Anther-bases 

 obtuse, entire. Style-arms of 2-sexual flowers short, truncate. 

 AcJienes 4-angled, tip obtuse, angles hairy, hairs sometimes hooked. 

 Pappus 0. — Species 3^ in Asia, Australia and Trop. S. America. 



C. orbicularis. Lour. Fl. CochincJi. ii, 493 t F. B. J. iii, 317 ,• 

 Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 46. Myriogyne minuta, DC, ; Boyle III, 

 248. Artemisia sternutatoria, Boxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 423. — Vern. Nuk» 

 chinJcni. 



A prostrate glabrous or sparsely woolly annual. Stems numerous, spread- 

 ing from the root ; 4-8 in. long, slender, leafy. Leaves many, sabsessile, 

 g-f in. long, obovate-oblong, tapering to the base, teeth few. Heads 

 ^V^ ill- ill diam., axillary, solitary, subsessUe. Invol-hrads very small,. 

 oblong, obtuse, the edges membranous. Achenes minute. 



Abundant within the area in wet places. Flowers during the cold season. 

 DiSTEiB. Throughout the plains of India and in Ceylon, extending 

 to Afghanistan, E, Trop Asia, Australia and the Pacific Islands. The 

 powdered herb is sold in druggists' tshops as a remedy for colds and 

 toothache. 



6. DICROCEFHALA, DC. ; FL Brit. Ind. iii, 245. 



Annuals. Leaves alternate, toothed lyrate or pinnatifid. Beads 

 very small, panicled, heterogamous, globose or hemispheric, not rayed. 

 Outer fiowers many-seriate, female, fertile, slender, rigid, 2-3«toothed 

 or cleft. Dish-flowers 2-sexual, fertile, narrow, 4-5-toothed. Invo- 

 lucre small ; bracts sub-2-seriate, slightly unequal and with dry 

 margins. Beceptacle somewhat contracted within the margin, ele- 

 vated, the top flat and naked. 'Corolla of fern, flowers slender, 

 rigid, minutely 2*3-toothed, or expanded into a 3-4-fid limb ; of 2- 

 sexnal flowers regular, tubular, with a narrowly campanulate 4«5- 

 toothed limb. Anther-bases truncate. Style-arms of the 2-8exual 



