490 COMPOSITE. [Lactuca. 



Heads peduncled, usually solitary. A more 

 slender plant with smaller and often nearly 

 entire leaves 2. L. remotijiora . 



Flowering stems leafy. 



Heads in corymbs, ligules blue . . . 3; L. dissecta' 



Heads subumbellate, ligules yellow . . 4j. Ir. ]polyce;phala. 



h L. runcinata, DC. in Wight Contrih. 26 ; Cooke Fl. Bomb. Hi, 60. 

 L Heyneana, DC. ; F. B. I, Hi, 403. Prenanthes racemosa, Boxh. Fl. 

 Ind. Hi, 405. 



^ tall annual or biennial glabrous herb, lA ft. high. Stem hollow below, 

 often stout and much branched. Leaves sessile, runcinate-pinnatifid , 

 -finely spinulose or ciliate-toothed, membranous ; radical 6- J 2 in. long, 

 very ir regular lypinnatifid ; cauline few, narrower, -|-amplexicaul and 

 auricled. Flowering stems slender, branches erect, Heads sessile or 

 nearly so, -| in. long, bracteolate, solitary or fascicled on the long 

 leafless ascending branches. Outer invol-hracts few, ovate, acute, with 

 broad scarious margins ; inner with thickened ribs when in fruit. 

 Flowers spreading, yellow. Anther-bases shortly acuminate. Aehenes 

 -jV in., shortly beaked, obianceolate, muricate, black. Pajppus flexuous, 

 silvery, twice as long as the achene. 



Banks of the Jumna and Cbambal rivers in the districts of Agra and 

 Etawah. (Munro, Duthie), Banda and (Edgeworth), Ajmir f(Duthie). 

 DisTKlB. Punjab, and Sindh to W. S. India and Ceylon. The plant 

 is much eaten by cattle. 



2. L. remotiflora, DC. in Wight Conirib. 26 ; F. B. I. Hi, 403 ; 



WattE. D. ; CooTce Fl. Bomb, ii, 60. 



A Bmaller and more delicate plant than L. runcinata, with smaller obovate 

 and nearly entire rarely pinnatifid radical leaves. Flowering stems less 

 branched. Beads usually solitary on the naked branches, distyictly 

 peduncled. Aehenes ^ in., nearly as long as the soft silvery persistent 

 pappus. 



Banda . (Edgeworth) . Disteib. Sindh, Deccan ; also in Arabia. The 

 plant is said to be used at Goa as a substitute for taraxacum. 



3. L. dissecta, Don. Prod. 164 ; F. B. I. Hi. 405 ; Collett Fl. 8iml. 284. 

 L. arvensis, Edgew. in Trans. Linn. Soc. xx, 79. 



-An annual, glabrous or pubescent. Stem 3-18 in. high, dichotomously 

 branched from the base, branches slender and leafy, or the sfcema 

 simple and leafy below. Leaves 1-4 in., very variable, entire, lyrate, 

 rancinate-pinnatifid or sometimes almost bipinnatifid, lobes entire or 

 toothed ; radical usually many, sessile or petioled ; cauline l-ampl^^xi- 

 caul, and with auricled bases, uppermost linear. Heads ^-^ in. long, 

 corymbose, erect, narrowly cylindric, peduncles very slender. Outer 

 invol-bracts minute, ovate, inner linear. Ligules blue. Aehenes i in. 



