472 COMPOSITE. [BiDENs. 



On sandy ground, especially in the districts of Delhi, Agra, Merwara 

 and Bundelkhand. In flower during the early part of the cold season. 

 DiSTRiB. Chota Nagpur and in C. and W. and S. India. The plant 

 which has a scent like that of fennel is eaten as a vegetable, 

 especially in years of scarcity. It is also used medicinally in the 

 Bombay Pres. - 



30. BIDENS, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 309. 



Annual or perennial sometimes climbing herbs. Leaves opposite, 

 entire toothed gashed or 1-2'pinnate. JSeads corymbosely panicled 

 or subsolitary, heterogamous and rayed, or homogamons and dis- 

 ciform. Bay -flowers, if present, female or neuter, 1-seriate ; ligule 

 spreading, yellow or white. Disk-flowers 2-Eexnal, fertile, 

 tubular ; limb oylindric, 5-fid. Involucre campanulate or hemis- 

 pheric; bracts sub-2-seriate, bases connate ; outer herbaceous, short 

 or leafy, inner membranous. Receptacle flat or convex; pales 

 narrow, nearly flat. Anther-cells entire or subsagittate. Style- 

 arms of 2«sexual flowers hairy above ; tips short, acute, or long 

 and subulate. Achenes 4-gonous or dorsally compressed, linear or 

 cuneiform, often narrowed but not beaked above. Pappus of 2-4 

 rigid retrosely hispid bristles or 0. — Species about 50, chiefly 

 American. 



B. pUosa, Linn. 8p. PI. 832; F. B. I. in, 309 ; Collett Fl. Siml. 264; 



Cooke Fl. Bomb, ii, 44. B. bipinnata, Linn. ; Eoxb. Fl. Ind. iii, 411. 



An erect glabrous or pubescent annual, 1-3 ft. high. Stems 4-angular, 

 grooved, thickened at the nodes- Leaves very variable, 3-fid, 3-folio- 

 late or 1-2-pinnatifid ; the terminal segments ovate, acute, serrate ; 

 petioles dilated and sheathing at the base. Heads (in flower) about 

 I in, in diam., elongating in fruit. Outer invol-lrads linear, obtuse, 

 ciliate, shorter than the acute broadly margined inner ones. Ray- 

 flowers ligulate, white or yellow. Eipe achenes i-| in. long, slender, 

 4-angular, glabrous, black, exceeding the involucre. Pajppus-awns 

 spreading, yellow. 



Common within the area. Distrib. Throughout India, ascending to 

 6,000 ft. on the Himalaya ; also in Afghanistan and in all warm coun- 

 tries. Probably of American origin. 



31. GLOSSOGVNE, Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 310. 



Perennial glabrous herbs, with almost naked stems and branches. 

 Leaves radical, crowded, pinnatifid, or cuneate and 3-toothed ; 

 eauline alternate, or the lower opposite, or 0. Meads small, few,. 



