Triptilion
(from treis, three, and ptilon, a wing; alluding to the three divisions of the pappus). ORD. Compositae. A genus embracing about half-a-dozen species of hardy or half-hardy, annual or perennial, Chilian herbs. Flower-heads blue or white, rather small, homogamous, forming a leafy panicle or corymb at the tips of the branches; florets bilabiate, the outer lip entire or three-toothed, the inner entire or bifid; involucral bracts few, very acute and spinescent, the outer ones shorter; receptacle naked or bristly-fimbrilliferous; achenes minutely papillose. Leaves alternate, scattered, ciliated-or spiny-toothed or pinnatifid. Two species have been introduced. Seeds should be sown, on a slight hotbed, in the beginning of April. The seedlings may be pricked out, and either planted out in a sheltered place, at the end of May, or flowered in pots, in a cool, airy greenhouse. A rich, light soil is necessary. T. spinosum may also be increased by divisions. T. cordifolium (cordate-leaved). fl.-heads white, sub-ternately clustered at the tips of the branches and branchlets; pappus bristles three, ciliated at apex. July. l. sessile, cordate-amplexicaul, nearly round, the margins toothed and furnished with distant spines. Stem erect, branched at apex. h. 6in. 1824. Annual. (B. R. 853.) T. spinosum (spiny). fl.-heads, outer lips of the florets blue, inner white; involucre glabrous. July. l. pinnately lobed; lobes terminated by a spiny mucrone. Stem corymbose at apex. h. 6in. 1827. Perennial. (B. 224; B. R. xxvii. 22; P. M. B. x. 269.)