Pluchea
(so called after N. A. Pluche, who published the "Spectacle de la Nature," at Paris, in 1732). Marsh Fleabane. SYNS. Conyza (in part), Gymnema (of Rafinesque), Leptogyne, Stylimnus. Including Karelinia. ORD. Compositae. A genus comprising nearly thirty species of greenhouse, tomentose, villous, or sometimes glutinous shrubs or sub-shrubs, rarely hardy perennial herbs, natives of the warmer regions of America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. Flower-heads white, yellow, or lilac, heterogamous, in the typical species small, disposed in corymbose, leafless, terminal cymes; in a few species, larger and solitary at the apices of the branches, or rather large and crowded at the tips of leafless branches; involucre ovoid, broadly campanulate or sub-hemispherical, the bracts few or many-seriate; receptacle flat, naked; achenes glabrous or pilose. Leaves alternate, toothed, or rarely entire or pinnatifid. Few of the species are of any horticultural value. P. caspica is of very easy culture in the open border, and may be propagated by seeds, or by divisions.
P. caspica (Caspian). fl.-heads purple, cylindrical, terminal, corymbose. August. l. oblong, lanceolate, entire. h. 2ft. to 3ft. Borders of Caspian Sea and Siberia. Hardy, herbaceous perennial. SYN. Karelinia caspia.