508 
47. COMPOSITACEJE. 
(b) L. decurrent ; fl. v. (Mesocentron DC.) 
f4. C. melitensis L. Beija mao. 
Harshly furry or cobwebby-pubescent substrigose canescent ; 
st. erect or diffuse straight elongate narrow-winged suberectly 
fork-branched ; 1. wavy strigosely hoary-pubescent, the radical 
lyrato-pinnatifid, the st.-l. linear-oblong or linear, irregularly 
repand-toothed or entire sessile decurrent or partly decurrent, 
all except the uppermost obtuse ; heads rather small leafy - 
bracteate or naked terminal or lateral solitary or aggregate at 
the ends of the branches, globose or ovato-globose, naked 
or slightly cobwebby ; scales with a fine sharp slender spread- 
ing or recurved terminal spine channelled inside at its base and 
pectinatelv pinnate on each side with 2 or 3 lateral remote 
shorter spinules ; fl. equal glandulous ; pappus setose dirty w. 
or fawn-colour. — C. melitensis WB. ii. 358; Gren. et Godr. ii. 
262 ; Willk. et Lange ii. 145 ; J. A. Schm. Fl. Verd. 201. C. 
apula Desf. ii. 300. Varr. or forms : — 
a. conferta WB. 1. c. 360; Webb Spic. Gorg. 143; J. A. 
Schm. 1. c. Heads geminate or clustered and crowded. C. 
melitensis Linn. ! Sp. 1297 ; Lam. Diet. i. 674. no. 62 (excl. 
var. /3) ; Pers. ii. 486. no. 86; Spr. Syst. iii. -106 ; Seub. Fl. Az. 
32 ; Coss. et Germ. ii. 391 ; RFG. xv. t. 65. f. 1. Jacea meli- 
tensis, &c., Bocc. Sic. 65, t. 35 ; Moris. Hist. iii. 145. § 7, t. 28. 
f. 28 (very bad, copied from Boccone). C. apula Desf. 1. c. ; 
DC. vi. 593. no. 151 (not Lam., Pers.). 
/3. vulgaris WB. 1. c. 360 ; heads solitary and remote or dis- 
tinct. C. apula Lam. Diet. i. 674. no. 61 ; Pers. ii. 486. no. 85 ; 
Spr. Syst. iii. 407. C. melitensis Smith ! in Linn. Trans, ii. 
238 ; Fl. Gr. t. 909 ; DC. vi. 593. no. 150 (not Linn.). C. ly - 
rata Pers. ii. 486. no. 94 (ob capitula “ solitaria ” dicta, incaute 
a cl. DC. ad C. apulam suam citata). C. solstitialis Buch ! 194. 
no. 252 (not Linn.). Merely a more developed form or ad- 
vanced stage of a. — Herb. ann. Mad. reg. 1, 2, cc; PS. reg. 2, 
3, cc ; GD. reg. 2, r or |; SD. reg. 2, £. Cornfields, waste rocky- 
ground, sunny banks and walls about Funchal and on the S. 
coast generally, as in PS. everywhere in chiefly maritime or 
hot dry situations, and sometimes troublesome from its fine 
sharp involucral spines. Less common in the north of Mad. 
March-Sept. — The two forms above indicated run too much 
together to be properly distinguishable, and are here only re- 
cognized for the more clear arrangement of the syn. Still, in 
Mad., (3 is by far the commonest. Root mostly simple vertical. 
St. 1-3 ft. high, stragglingly branched from the base, stiff hard 
slender like the spreading branches. Whole pi. hoary or 
greyish gr. scabrous glandular-pubescent or subviscoso-furry and 
here and there cottony or cobwebby. L. flaccid waved, the 
