Montanoa
(called after Montano, a Mexican politician). SYNS. Eriocarpha, Eriocoma, and Montagnea. ORD. Compositae. This genus eomprises about fourteen species of shrubs, sometimes arborescent, rarely suffruticose, natives of North America, ranging from Mexico to Columbia. Flower-heads white, or sometimes pink, heterogamous, in corymbose panicles; ray-florets sterile; achenes glabrous, the hypogynous disk sometimes so much developed as to resemble a cup-shaped pappus. Leaves opposite, entire, dentate, or broadly lobed; lower ones sometimes large, pinnatifid. Montanoas thrive in good fibrous loam, and succeed best in the cool conservatory. Propagated by seeds, sown in gentle bottom heat, in spring, and the seedlings gradually hardened off; or by cuttings of roots, inserted in autumn, and of the stems or shoots, in spring. These latter must be placed in a close, heated frame. M. bipinnatifida makes a striking plant for summer sub-tropical gardening. M. bipinnatifida (bipinnatifid).* fl.-heads yellow, in the apices of the branches, heterogamous; ray-florets ligulate; disk-florets tubular, funnel-shaped; receptacle convex, scaly. l. opposite, petiolate, bipinnatifid; lower ones pinnatifid, rigid, pilose; segments serrate. h. 6ft. to 8ft. Mexico. SYNS. M. heracleifolia, Polymnia grandis, P. heracleifolia.(R. H. 1863, 370.) M. heracleifolium (Heracleum-leaved). A synonym of M. bipinnatifida. M. mollissima (very soft). fl.-heads, disk yellow; ray white. August to October. l. oval-lanceolate, sessile, deep dull green above, silvery-white and hairy beneath. A handsome branched shrub. Mexico.
M. tomentosa (tomentose). fl.-heads white, in compound corymbs; throat of corolla campanulate, about equalling the tube. September. l. cordate, oblong, toothed, tomentose, acute. h. 3ft. Mexico, 1828. (S. B. F. G. ser. ii. 44, under name of Eriocoma fragrans.)