Wedelia
(named in compliment to George Wolfgang Wedel, 1645-1721, a German botanist, Professor at Jena). Including Wollastonia. ORD. Compositae. A genus embracing about forty-five species of stove, greenhouse, or hardy, scabrous-pubescent or hirsute, annual or perennial herbs or sub-shrubs, inhabiting the warmer parts of the globe. Flower-heads yellow, pedunculate, at the tips of the branches or in the upper axils, heterogamous; involucral bracts sub-biseriate, the outer three to five usually herbaceous or leafy, the inner dry; receptacle flat or convex, the pales inclosing the florets; ray florets ligulate, entire, or two or three-toothed at apex; disk florets five-toothed or shortly five-cleft; achenes smooth or tubercled. Leaves opposite, often toothed, rarely trifid or entire. The species are mostly interesting from a botanical stand-point only. Those described below thrive in any fairly good soil. W. hispida may be increased by seeds or by divisions, and W. radiosa by seeds or by cuttings.
W. aurea (golden). A synonym of Zexmenia aurea.
W. hispida (hispid). fl.-heads one to a peduncle; outer involucral scales hairy, the inner ones nearly glabrous. June. l. lanceolate or somewhat obovate-lanceolate, cuneate at base, acuminate at apex, cut-toothed, hairy. Branches erect, hispid. h. 1 1/2ft. Mexico, &c., 1819. Half-hardy perennial. (B. R. 543.) SYN. Zexmenia texana.
W. radiosa (rayed). fl.-heads one to three on peduncles longer than the leaves; involucral scales in three series, the outer ones leafy, the inner membranous. June. l. petiolate, ovate-or oblong-lanceolate, acute, serrulated, puberulous. h. 2ft. Brazil, 1820. Greenhouse sub-shrub. (B. R. 610.)