Melanthera
(from melas, black, and anthera, an anther; alluding to the colour of the anthers). ORD. Compositoe. A genus comprising about eight species of scabrous-pubescent or slightly villous, stove, greenhouse, or half-hardy, herbs or sub-shrubs, natives of tropical America and Africa. Flower-heads white or yellow, mediocre; young ones depressed, at length sub-globose, borne at the apices of the branches or in the axils of the upper leaves; involucre hemispherical, short, the bracts two or three-seriate; receptacle convex or at length conical; achenes glabrous or slightly pilose. Leaves opposite, petiolate, toothed, or rarely hastately trilobed. The species thrive in any ordinary soil, and may be increased either by seeds or by divisions. M. deltoidea (deltoid). fl.-heads yellow; involucral scales oval-oblong; chaff of the receptacle obtuse, mucronate. July and August. l. opposite, undivided, ovate-deltoid or sub-cordate, scabrous-canescent. h. 3ft. West Indies, &c., 1799. Stoveherb. SYN. Calea aspera.
M. hastata (spear-shaped). fl.-heads white; involucral scales lanceolate; chaff of the receptacle spine-pointed. June and July. l. opposite, hastately trilobed, scabrous. h. 3ft. to 6ft. North America, 1732. Half-hardy herb. The variety pandurata has fiddle-shaped leaves.