Lactuca.] composite. 48^ 



Heads l-^ in. on slender spreading bracteolate peduncles. Invol-hrads 

 6-8, narrowly oblong, glabrous, recurved when in fruit, margins hyaline. 

 Flowers pale-yellow. Achenes narrowly fusiform, compressed, ribbed 

 and minutely rugose, reddish. 



Common within the area. Distrib. Throughout India and in Ceylon, 

 ascending to 10,000 ft. on the Himalaya ; also in China, Japan, and 

 Australia, and in S. Africa and Mauritius as an introduction* 



2. C SLoa.ulis, HooTc.f. in F. B. I. Hi, 396; Prenanthes acaulis; Koxb. 

 Fl, Ind. in, 403. 



A glabrous stemless perennial _ herb. Root woody, straight, cylindric. 

 Leaves chiefly radical, 2-12 in. long, lanceolate linear or narrowly 

 obovate-spathulate, obtuse or acute, entire sinuate-toothed or, sub- 

 pinnatifid ; nerves spreading, faint. Scajpe 4- or 5-flowered, usually 

 shorter than the leaves, 3-10 in. long, simple or dichotomously branched. 

 Heads few, 1 in. long, 10-12-flowered ; peduncle bracteolate. Outer 

 invol-bracts very small ; inner linear, the margins hyaline. Flowers 

 yellow, pedicelled. Achenes } in. ellipsoid, subcompressed, shorter than 

 the soft silvery pappus, ribs smooth. 



Siwalik range (Edgeworth), Dehra Dun (Duthie), N. Oudh, in the Kheri 

 and Bahraich districts and in Gorakhpur (Duthie's collector). 

 DisTKiB. Subtropical Himalaya from Jamu to Bhutan, Bengal, Cent, 

 and S. India, Shan Hills in Upper Burma. 



50. LACTUCA, Linn. ; Fl. Brit. Ind. iii, 402. 

 Glabrous or hispid milky herbs. Leaves radical and alternate, 

 entire, toothed, pinnatifid or pinnate ; cauHne often stem-clasping^ 

 and auricled. Heads sessile or peduncled, panicled, corymbose, race- 

 mose or subspicate, homogamous, yellow purple or blue. Flowers 

 all ligulate. Involucre usually narrow ; bracts usually few-seriate, 

 thinly herbaceous, margins often membranous ; inner slender, sub- 

 equal, outer often very short. Receptacle flat, naked. Anther-bases 

 sagittate, rarely tailed. Achenes compressed or flattened, ovoid- 

 oblong or narrow, beaked, faces 3-many-ribbed ; ribs slender or 

 strong, smooth or rugose, the middle one often the strongest ; beah 

 slender, or short and cylindric, dilated into an entire or toothed 

 pappiferousdisk. Pap^w5 copious, hairs very slender, simple, usually 

 soft and white, but very variable, persistent or separately deciduous, 

 sometimes with a minute outer ring. — Species about 60 ; in N, 

 temperate regions, and on mountains within the tropics. 



Leaves mostly radical, heads in spikes or racemes on the long erect,, 

 almost naked flowering stems. 



Heads sessile or nearly so, solitary or fascicled, 

 leaves runcinate-pinnatifld • / • 1. L, runcinoita. 



