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ILLUSTRATIONS OF INDIAN BOTANY.
SYNOPSIS of the Genera of Indian Composite, translated and abridged from
De CaNDOLLe's PRODROMUS — WITH A FEW ADDITIONS AND OCCASIONAL NoTES.
INTRODUCTION.
It will be seen by those who take the trouble to com- pare the following characters with the originals, that I have generally departed considerably from De Candolle's arrangement. My object in doing so was to render them more compendious, the alteration in form better enabling me to retrench superfluities, and at the same time give greater precision, by placing the strongest points of each at the beginning. The characters taken from the capitula, flowers, achaenia, and pappus — which are really the essential ones — occupy the first rank: while those taken from the vegetation generally, in- cluding the texture and duration of the stem, form, and position of the leaves, peculiarities of the inflorescence, the receptacle and its clothing, and the colour of the flowers, are uniformly referred to the second. By fol- lowing this plan, the characters are in fact completely recast, and, though still made up of the original materi- als, are, I think, rendered of much more easy applica- tion in practice, and to that extent at least are improved.
According to De Candolle's classification, the whole family is divided into three primary groups or sub-orders, viz. Tubuliflora, Labiatiflorce, and LiguliflorcE.
These are again divided into "eight tribes," each of which is still further divided into "sub-tribes," "divi- sions" and "sub-divisions."
Of all these analytical divisions I have availed myself in the construction of this Synopsis, not that I consider- ed the introduction of such elaborate machinery neces- sary for the working out of the few genera I have to deal with, but as furnishing an instructive example of skilful and lucid analysis, successfully brought to bear on the discrimination of individuals, among a vast as- semblage of natural objects, all so intimately blended with each other that, without some such contrivance to aid the apprehension and memory, they never could be brought within the grasp of human comprehension.
- TcBULiFLORiE. Hermaphrodite flowers tubular,
regular, 5- (rarely 4-) toothed. [In this division all sorts of flowers occur, hermaphrodite, female and male, possi- bly sometimes all in the same capitulum — two kinds very generally, female and hermaphrodite — the charac- ter is however limited to the hermaphrodite flowers.]
Tribe 1st. Vernoniace.e. Style of the hermaphro- dite flowers cylindrical; branches usually elongated, subulate, rarely short and obtuse, always equally and longish hispid (semper equaliter et longiuscule hispidis); stigmatic series ending above the middle of the branches of the style. [Of this tribe D. C. defines 59 genera, 7 of which have Indian representatives.]
Tribe 2d. Eupatoriace.e. Style of the hermaphro- dite flowers cylindrical ; branches long, somewhat thickened or clavate above, exteriorly puberulously pa- pillose ; stigmatic series scarcely elevated, usually end- ing above the middle of the branches of the style. [Genera 44, of which 5 only are found in India.]
Tribe 3d. Asteroide^;. Style of the hermaphro- dite flowers cylindrical ; branches exteriorly somewhat
flattened, equally and minutely puberulous above ; stig- matic series prominent, extending almost to the origin of the exterior hairs. [To this tribe 172 genera belong, 38 of which have Indian species.]
Tribe 4th. Senecionide.e. Style of the hermaphro- dite flowers cylindrical; branches linear penicillate at the apex, sometimes produced beyond the penicillus into a short cone, or elongated into a narrow hispid ap- pendix; stigmatic series broadish and prominent, ex- tending to the pencil. [This is by much the largest tribe of the family : it contains 388 genera, 42 of which have Indian representatives.]
Tribe 5th. Cynare.e. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers nodosely thickened above, often penicillate at the knot; branches sometimes cohering, sometimes free, puberulous exteriorly; stigmatic series not prominent, confluent, extending to the apices of the branches and there confluent. [To this tribe 81 genera are referred, 18 of which have Indian representatives.]
- Labiatiflor.e. Hermaphrodite flowers, usually
bilabiate.
Tribe 6th. Mutisiace2e. Style of the hermaphrodite flowers cylindrical, or somewhat nodose above ; branches usually obtuse or truncated, very convex, and clothed on the superior part with minute hairs, which are rarely wanting. [This tribe includes 54 genera, only 6 of which are referable to the Indian Flora.]
Tribe 7th. Nassauviace^e. Style of the hermaphro- dite flowers not nodosely thickened ; branches linear longish, truncated at the apex or penicillate. [This tribe contains 26 genera, but has no Indian represen- tative.]
- * LiGULiFLORiE. All the flowers hermaphrodite.
Tribe 8th. Cichorace.e. Style cylindrical above ; branches longish, somewhat obtuse, equally pubescently- roughish; stigmatic series ending above the middle of the branches of the style. [This last includes 83 gen- era, of which 16 have Indian species.]
The total number of genera is extracted from Meis- ner's "Genera Plantarum," as, owing to some errors in the numbering of the series in D. C.'s Prodromus, they could not be so correctly obtained from that work. A few genera were omitted by D. C. which, when added to the above, make up the total number to about 920. Several have however been since added to that series, so that the total number now defined in Botanical works may perhaps amount to about 950. Some of these will probably require to be reduced, but others must be formed to include imperfectly known species, which are, for the present, referred to genera to which they seem most nearly related, but to which they may not properly belong, as for example Oligolipes, in this list.
P. S. Oct. 1848. According to Lindley's Veg. King- dom, published last year, but the preface dated Octo- ber 1845, there were then 1005. If his list was com- pleted three years ago, it is probable the list of genera at
