Zexmenia
(an anagram of Ximenesia). SYN. Lipochaete (in part). ORD. Compositae. A genus embracing about twenty-five species of stove, greenhouse, or hardy, annual or perennial herbs or sub-shrubs, sometimes tall climbers, inhabiting the warmer parts of America. Flower-heads yellow, solitary, corymbose, or sub-umbellate, heterogamous, radiate; involucre variable, the bracts in two, three, or several series; receptacle convex, the pales sheathing the flowers; ray florets ligulate, spreading, entire, or two or three-toothed; disk florets tubular, the apex shortly five-cleft; achenes usually slightly pilose. Leaves opposite, entire or toothed. Only two species call for mention here. They thrive in any fairly rich soil. Z. aurea may be increased by cuttings, inserted in sandy soil, under a glass, in heat; and Z. ovata may be readily propagated by seeds, sown on the open border. Z. aurea (golden). fl.-heads golden-yellow, solitary and terminal in the upper axils; ray florets seven to nine twice as long as the involucre. September. l. opposite, sessile, ovate-lanceolate, obtuse at base, slightly acuminate at apex, serrated, pubero-scabrous on both sides. Branches terete, villous-canescent. h. 1 1/2ft. Mexico, 1829. Half-hardy sub-shrub. SYNS. Verbesina aurea, Wedelia aurea (B. M. 3384).
Z. ovata (ovate-leaved). fl.-heads deep orange-yellow; ray florets elliptical; peduncles short, terminal, sometimes solitary, sometimes arranged in a kind of corymb. Autumn. l. sessile, the basis (scarcely a petiole) amplexicaul, ovate, acute, serrated, triple-nerved, paler beneath. Stem rounded, branched, hairy. h. 2ft. Mexico, 1828. Hardy annual. SYN. Tithonia ovata (B. M. 3901). Z. texana (Texan). A synonym of Wedelia hispida.