434 
47. COMPOSITACE.E. 
Serra d’Agoa, &c. Jan.-May, but at almost all seasons. — Pl. 
gregarious forming large beds or patches, wholly pubescent. 
Roots per. creeping. St. numerous erect or ascending branched 
bushy leafy, suffrutescent woody and brittle downwards, round 
from the first throughout and only a little compressed at the 
joints or nodes. Foliage of a somewhat dull not hoary gr. L. 
opposite stalked on shortish furry petioles 1 their length 
oblong-ovate acute sharply and evenly serrate, entire and sub- 
cuneate or truncate at the base, 1^-2 in. long broad. 
Cymes numerous terminal dense many-fld. handsome from 
the fine lavender or lilac-blue of the long exserted styles. 
Heads moderately large 3-4 lines long and broad hemispheri- 
cally or broadly and shortly campanulate ; inv. half the length 
of fits. ; scales 15-25 subvilloso-pubescent subequal and scarcely 
imbricate strongly 2-ribbed or nerved linear aristato -acuminate 
entire herbaceous, gr. below, dark reddish or purplish upwards. 
Fits, glandular-pubescent, tube w., teeth fine lilac-blue like 
the smooth upper halves or more of the very long cylindric or 
slightly clavate erecto-radiant, presently flaccidly deflexed, in 
drying tortuose, styles. — Ach. smooth or sprinkled up the an- 
gles and upwards between them with a few minute shining 
erect points or setules ; in all my Mad. and in English garden 
spec, abortive and hence probably shining pale brown or light 
fawn-colour instead of black as described in BM. 1. c., the 5 
sharp ribs or angles darker, the interspaces plano-concave quite 
smooth and even (not striolate) narrowly oblong-pentagonal 
truncate at top, attenuated downwards with an oblique callous 
shining w. scar at the base. Pappus of 5 erect parallel lanceo- 
late finely serrulate chaffs, all or sometimes only 2-4 produced 
into finely rough stiff setaceous awns f-1 line long i. e. about as 
long as or a little longer than the ach., approximate and late- 
rally overlapping downwards. Recept. wholly naked small 
pulvinato-conical or mamillate coarsely foveolate. 
This is the pl. so commonly cultivated in garden-beds in 
England under the name of Blue Ageratum. 
No two pl. in any genus can be more constantly distinct as 
sp. than the present and its immediate precursor. Except in 
the points included in the generic character, they differ strikingly 
in almost every particular. 
