SONCHUS. 
549 
leaf-buds and the bases or axils of the older 1. at their junction 
with the crown of the root or short st. which are covered in a 
and (3 with a dense velvety fawn-coloured tomentum, exactly as in 
the unique example in 1311. of S. dentotus Sol. MSS. and also 
in the Tenerifan truly herbaceous 8. radicatus Ait. This is in 
fact a very general char, of the tips of the branches and young 
1. in the Mad. and Can. Sonchi. L. 3-6 in. long, 1-2 broad, in 
outline lanceolate acuminate, their lobes or pinnae 6-8 ’on each 
side, regular and equidistant, decreasing equably in length 
from the middle upwards and downwards, the terminal lobe 
or point of the 1. being very narrow small and acuminato- 
lanceolate or subcaudate. Cyme regularly dichotomous through- 
out wholly naked or leafless except a small inconspicuous mem- 
branous reddish or purplish finely acuminate scale-like hr. at 
each fork and occasionally one or two similar minute deci- 
duous bractlets scattered on the ped. FI. bright y., about 1 or 
1 j in. in diam., with rather long lax ligules. Outer scales of 
inv. short broadly half-ovate subremote and exposing the pale 
gr. fleshy swollen base of the anthod. between them ; inner 
scales linear-oblong acute and blackish or discoloured like the 
outer ; all compactly close-pressed in all stages. Ach. rarely 
perfected, irregularly oblong or oblong-oval angular striated 
very pale brown. Pappus short but copious silky-w. rough 
simple very deciduous. 
y, with short broad obtuse pinnae, is merely a rank luxuriant 
form of a. 
Growing on the most exposed and arid rocks in the hottest 
situations, this very peculiar and well-marked sp. is completely 
burnt up during the summer. Immediately after the first 
autumnal rains it puts forth in Oct. or early in Nov. a fresh 
rose of 1. from the middle of the dead and dried-up remains 
of those of the former winter ; and the scape and fl. appear soon 
afterwards, not lasting usually beyond Dec. 
Though not recorded by Webb as a Canarian pi., S. ustulatus 
occurs at Taganana and thence to P ta Anaga along the N. coast 
of Tenerife. The Can. S. radicatus (Ait.), also a truly herba- 
ceous pi. with precisely the same habit, is at once distinguish- 
able by its lyrate 1. with a large deltoidal terminal lobe and 
only 3 or 4 lateral lobes or pinmo on each side, its 1 or 2- 
leaved fl.-st. and irregularly not dichotomously branched cyme. 
Its ascription in the 1st ed. of Ilort. Ivew. to Madeira was a 
pure mistake, which was however corrected in the 2nd. 
It is scarcely conceivable how such a consummate discri- 
2 e 2 
