beautifulflowers032840mbp

6 BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS OF KASHMlfe
[PI. 34 & 35
Lactuca polycephala, Benth. Many-headed Lettuce.
A flaccid, slender, glabrous annual, 6-18 in. high. Leaves
membranous, 3-10 by J-f in. ;
radical leaves stalked, very long,
narrow, linear or lance-shaped, entire, toothed or pinnatifid ;
stem -leaves stalkless, oblong or lance-shaped, base arrowshaped,
auricles sharp-pointed. Flowering stems simple or
branched. Heads -J in. diameter, 10-20-flowered, erect,
.
forming corymbs or panicles. Outer involucral bracts very
small, inner 6-10, linear-oblong, green. Flowers
7
yellow
Achenes i in. long, red-brown, hardly compressed, smooth,
narrowed into a short slender brown beak, with about 10 very
strong ribs. Pappus silvery, as long as the achene.
Locality. Tropical and subtropical regions.
Distribution. Afghanistan, Punjab Plain, Bengal, up to
6,000 ft. on the Himalaya, from Kashmir to Sikkim, Khasia
Hills, Upper Burma.
Plate 35
RHAGADIOLUS, Juss.
Fig. 1. Rhagadiolus Hedypnois, Fisch. & Mey.
Glabrous or sparsely hairy. Branches 2-8 in. long, all
spreading from the root. Leaves 1-3 in. long, inversely eggshaped-oblong,
toothed or pinnatifid at the base, narrowed
into the stalk. Flower-heads i-i in., few-flowered, in the
axils of or at the end of the branches, yellow. Flower-stalks
thickened in fruit. Involucral bracts small, slightly spiny or
smooth in fruit, in one series, at length keeled and embracing
the outer achenes. Achenes i-i in. long, much exceeding the
bracts, bent inwards, narrow, smooth, beaked, outer ones with
a short pappus, inner with a pale-like pappus.
Flowers. April, May.
Fruits. May.
'
Locality. Gagribal on the Dal, on a hill ; Srinagar.
Distribution. Kashmir, Baluchistan, Persia, Caucasus,
Mesopotamia, Syria, Asia Minor.