COMPOSITE. 
169 
12. ECLIPTA, Linn. 
Heads heterogamous, the outer flowers ligulate, fertile, those of the 
disk tubular, hermaphrodite and also fertile. Involucre campanulate, 
composed of about two rows of lanceolate herbaceous scales of equal 
length. Eeceptacle convex, bearing scales as long as the achenes. 
Anthers not tailed. Style-branches flat, with deltoid appendages. 
Achenes triquetrous or slightly compressed, scabrous on the face, 
tipped by a toothed ring, which sometimes bears one or two short 
bristles. — Herbs, with narrow opposite leaves and inconspicuous heads 
from the axils of the leaves. Distrib. Round the world in the tropics. 
Species 3 or 4. 
1. E. erecta, Linn. ; DC. Prod. v. 490. A branched erect annual, 
2-3 feet high, with stems and leaves clothed with short bristly hairs. 
Leaves rhomboid-lanceolate, 2-3 in. long, obscurely toothed, sessile. 
Heads one terminal and the rest solitary or in pairs from the axils 
of the leaves on distinct ascending peduncles. Involucre broadly 
campanulate ; scales few, imbricated, £ in. long. Flowers 30-40 in 
a bead ; rays pale yellow. Achenes T x ¥ in. long, oblanceolate-tri- 
quetrous, glabrous. E. alba, L laenke. 
Var. prostrata {Linn.; DC. Prod. loc. cit. as a species). Dwarf, 
diffuse, with slender stems 3-6 in. long, smaller leaves and fewer 
flowers in a head. 
Mauritius, frequent in waste ground and damp places. All the eight species of 
the section Eueclipta enumerated in Decandolle’s Prodromus seem mere forms of one, 
a universal tropical weed. 
13. BIDENS, Linn. 
Flowers all tubular and hermaphrodite or often the outer row neuter 
and producing yellow ligules. Involucre campanulate ; scales biserial, 
subequal, linear, herbaceous, connate at the base. Receptacle scaly. 
Anthers not tailed. Style-branches pilose, tipped with a small cone. 
Achenes in our plant cylindrical- angular, tipped with 2-4 short bristles, 
with stiff reflexed barbs. — Annual or perennial herbs, with opposite 
divided leaves and middle-sized yellow heads in lax corymbs. Distrib. 
Cosmopolitan. Species about 50. 
1. B. pilosa, Linn.; DC. Prod. v. 597. An erect annual, 2-3 feet 
high, with weak subglabrous, tetragonous stems. Leaves distinctly 
petroled, opposite, the lower compound, with 3-5 ovate, acute, mem- 
branous toothed leaflets, the uppermost simple. Heads few, long-pedun- 
cled, laxly corymbose. Involucre | in. long ; scales about 15, in two 
rows, linear, herbaceous, ciliated. Flowers in our specimens all tubular. 
Achenes glabrous, longer than the involucre ; bristles 2-4, a third the 
length of the achene. B. Jeucantha, Willd. ; DC. Prod. v. 598. B. 
tripartita, P ojer, ILort. Ifaur. 183, non Linn. 
Mauritius, Rodriguez, and Seychelles, frequent in waste ground. A cosmopo- 
litan weed. La Ville-bague. 
