Tab. 6275. 
XANTHISM A TEXANUM. 
Native of Texas. 
Nat. Ord. Composite. — Tribe Asteroide^e. 
Genus Xanthisma, DO. ( Bentli . et Hoolt.f. Gen. Plant, vol. ii. p. 253). 
Xanthisma texaiium, glaberrimumv. scaberulum gracile, parce ramosnm, rigidius- 
culmn, ramulis tenuibus virgatis, foliis sparsis parvis sessilibus lineari-oblongis 
obovatisve aristato-acuminatis cartilagineo- serrulatis 1-nervis aveniis, capitulis 
terminalibus solitariis breviter pednnculatis, involucri hemispherici bracteis 
coriaceis nitidis obtusis cuspidatis, receptaculo piano alveolato paleaceo, 
floribus flavis radii $ 1-seriatis ligula oblonga apice 3-dentata disci £ tubu- 
losis 5-dentatis, styli ramis subulatis liirtis, acheniis obovoideis, pappi setis 
rufis rigidis subpaleaceis acbenio mnlto longioribus. 
X. Drummondii, DC. Prod. vol. v. p. 94 ; Torr. Bot. Marey Exped. t. 10, sine 
descript ; A. Gray , Plant. Wright, vol. i. p. 98. 
Centauridium Drummondii, Torr. and Gr. FI. N. Am. vol. ii. p. 246. 
A very handsome Centaury-like hardy annual, with golden 
flowers, discovered in Texas some fifty years ago, and since 
found by many collectors, but never introduced into European 
gardens till within the last few years. It was published both 
in Europe and America, and as a new genus, first as Xan- 
thisma, by the elder I)e Candolle in the Prodromus in 1836, 
and in about 1842 as Centauridium , by Torrey and Gray in the 
Flora of North America. 
Xanthisma is closely allied to the great American genus 
Haptopappus, which extends from California to Patagonia. 
The figure in “ Marcy’s Expedition ” is a very bad one, and 
represents the pappus as two distinctly double, the corolla of 
the ray as acute, which is owing to the margins being involute 
in a dry state ; it omits the hairs on the achenes, and the minute 
serratures of the foliage. This plant flowered in Kew in 
November last. 
Descr. A slender sparingly branched annual, one to three 
feet high, with slender twiggy branchlets that are smooth or 
slightly scaberulous. Leaves scattered, three-quarters to one 
and a half inch long, sessile, linear or linear- oblong, or slightly 
dilated upwards, acute, with a deciduous awn at the tip, margin 
