1028 COMPOSITAE. | Microseris. 
26. MICROSERIS Don. !% > 2. 
Annual or perennial glabrous herbs. Leaves chiefly radical, entire or 
toothed or pinnatifid. Scapes long, leafless, smgle-headed. Heads homo- 
gamous. Involucre oblong or cylindric; bracts in about 2 series, with 
a few short imbricate ones below. Receptacle flat, without scales. Florets 
all ligulate, yellow. Achenes narrow, attenuate at the base, cylindrical, 
ribbed. Pappus of few or several linear flat scales tapering into simple or 
plumose bristles. 
A genus of 30 to 40 species, all western North American except one from Chile 
and another from Australia and New Zealand. 
Fret) : 
1. M. seapigera,0. Hoffin. Pflanzen. iv, abt. 5 (1894) 358.—A perfectly 
glabrous perennial herb; roots thick and fleshy, almost tuberous, juice 
milky. Leaves all radical, very variable in size, 2-10in. long, narrow- 
linear to lanceolate, flaccid, entire or irregularly toothed or pinnatifid; the 
lobes narrow, distant, spreading. Scapes usually exceeding the leaves, 
rarely shorter, sometimes puberulous above. Heads solitary, 3-3 in. long ; 
involucral bracts linear, acute, rather fleshy, with membranous borders. 
Florets longer than the involucre. Achenes linear, deeply grooved. Pappus- 
bristles slightly dilated below, serrulate or shortly plumose.—Scorzonera 
scapigera: Forst. f. Prodr. (1786) 91; A. Cunn. Precur. (1838) n. 480. 
M. Forsteri Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 151; Fl. Tasm. i (1860) 226, 
t. 66; Handb. N.Z. Fl. (1864) 164; 7. Kirk Students’ Fl. (1899) 356; 
Cheesem. Man. N.Z. Fl. (1906) 384.C¥e + Kef>. Dey.-Faee. IQis-. pds. 
Norte AND Sourn Istanps: From the Middle Waikato and Rotorua southwards, 
plentiful. Stewart Isuanp: Cockayne. Sea-level to 4000 ft, December- 
Vebruary. 
ae 
27, PICRIS Linn. 173 S 
/ 
&° 
WE 6 breet branched hispid herbs with milky juice. Leaves alternate or 
jer 
\“;-adical, entire or toothed or pinnatifid. Heads corymbose, yellow, homo- 
gamous. Involucre urceclate or campanulate, inner bracts in 1 series, 
subequal; outer in several series, narrow, herbaceous; or the outermost 
broad and foliaceous. Receptacle flat, naked. Florets all ligulate. Anthers 
sagittate at the base, acute or setaceous. Achenes linear or oblong, more 
or less incurved, subterete or angled, 5—10-ribbed with the ribs transversely 
rugose, narrowed above or distinctly beaked. Pappus copious, of 2 series 
of soft hairs; inner broad at the base, plumose; outer fewer, slender. 
Species about 35, mainly natives of Europe and temperate Asia, the New Zealand 
species widely spread in most temperate and subtropical countries. 
1. P. hieracioides Linn. Sp. Plant. (1753) 792.—-A biennial herb 1-3 ft. 
high, more or less hispid with simple or barbed hairs; stem corymbosely. 
branched above. | Leaves 3-6 in. long, linear-oblong, lanceclate or linear, 
sinuate-toothed, the lower ones tapering into a petiole, the upper smaller 
and narrower, sessile, stem-clasping. Peduncles long, slender. Heads 
?-lin. diam.; involucral bracts hispid and pubescent. Achenes red-brown, 
narrow-ellipsoid, tapering into a short beak, very strongly transversely 
ribbed. Pappus-hairs deciduous, soft, white, plumose.—A. OCunn. Precur. 
(1838) n. 432; Raoul Choix (1846) 45; Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i (1853) 151 ; 
