^66 COMPOSITE. [Xanthium. 



ascending. Leaves sessile, about 1 in. long, linear-oblong or obovate, 

 narrowed towards the base, entire or serrulate, obtuse or apiculate 

 and recurved at the tips. Heads about \ in. in diam. Outer invol' 

 iracts herbaceous, lanceolate, obtuse or f ubacute ; inner scarious, 

 acute. Bayfl. ligulate, yellow, the ligules exceeding the bracts, 

 early deciduous. Inner pappvs-hairs twice as long as the minute 

 glabrate achenes ; outer pappus a laciniate cup. 



Jumna ravines near Delhi and Agra (Eoyle, Jacquemont and Duthie), 

 Bundelkhand (Edgeworth and Duthie). Flowers during the cold. 

 season. Disteib. Ch.ota Nagpur, Mt. Abu, Sindh, Konkan ; also in 

 Baluchistan. Bengal specimens are n)uch more robust than those 

 of the north-west which, in Mr. Clarke's opinion, belong to Edge- 

 worth's P. saxicola. 



3. P. crispa. Schultz-Bip. in Well ^ Berth. Phyt Canar. ii, 22S ; 



F. B. I. Hi, 299. Francceuria crispa, Cass.; Royle 111. 24S. 



A stout shrubby perennial, 1-2 ft. high ; branches with ascending very 

 leafy branches. Leaves 4-amplexicaul, l-l| in. long, linear-oblong ; 

 margins recurved, dentate, undulate crispate, more or less clothed 

 beneath with white wood. Heads i-i in- in diam; Invol-hrads 

 slender, setaceous, pubescent outside. Ligules shorter than the bracts. 

 Pafpus-hairs connate at the base in a ring, white, 3 times as long as 

 the glabrate achenes. 



Widely distributed throughout the area on river-banks and waste 

 ground. Flowers in Feb. and March. Djstkib. Bengal, Punjab 

 Plain, Sindh, and westwards through Afghanistan and Persia to 

 N. Africa. The dried plant is said to be used in the Punjab as an 

 application to bruises. 



22. XANTHIUM, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 303. 

 CoaTse rongh annuals, unarmed or with 3-fid spines. Leaves 

 alternate, toothed or iobed. Heads monoecious (female and 

 S-sexual), axillary ; Bisexual heads in the upper axils, prlobose, many- 

 flowered ; flowers sterile, tubular, 5-toothed. Female heads 2- 

 flowered, fertile, apetalous. Involucre of 2-sexiial heads short ; 

 hi^acts few, 1-2-seriate, narrow ; receptacle cylindric, with, hyaline 

 pales inclosing' the flowers. Involucre of female heads with the 

 bracts united mto an ovoid 2-beaked herbaceous 2-celled utricle with, 

 one flower in each cell, clothed with hooked bristles and with sometimes 

 a few small free outer bracts. Filaments monadelphous ; anthers 

 free, bases obtuse ; tips mucronate, inflexed. Style of 2-sexual 

 flowers slender, undivided ; arms of fem. flowers free, exserted from 

 the involucie. Achenes inclosed in the hardened involucral cells, 

 obovoid, thick. Fapjpus 0.— Species about 4, probably all 

 .American. 



