390 



CARDUACEAE. 



4. GNAPHAMTJM L. 



Woolly branched herb's, with alternate leaves, and discoid heads of pistil- 

 late and perfect flowers arranged in corymbs, spikes, racemes, or heads. Re- 

 ceptacle flat, convex or conic, not chaffy, usualy foveolate. Pistillate flowers in 

 several series, their corollas filiform, minutely dentate or 3-4-lobed. Central 

 flowers perfect, tubular, few, their corollas 5-toothed or 5-lobed. Anthers sagit- 

 tate at the base, the auricles tailed. Achenes oblong or obovate, terete or 

 slightly compressed, not ribbed. Pappus a single series of capillary bristles, 

 sometimes thickened above, cohering at the base, or separately deciduous. 

 [Greek, referring to the wool.] About 120 species, widely distributed. Type 

 species: Gnaphalium Inteoalbum L. 



1. Gnaphalium purpureum L. 



PURPLISH CUDWEED. (Fig. 425.) 

 Annual or biennial, simple and 

 erect, or branched from the base 

 and the branches ascending, 3 '-2 

 high. Leaves spatulate, or the up- 

 permost linear, mostly obtuse, mu- 

 crouulate, woolly beneath, usually 

 green and glabrous or nearly so 

 above when old, sessile, or the 

 lowest narrowed into petioles, l'-2' 

 long, 2"-3" wide; heads about 2" 

 high ; bracts of the involucre yel- 

 lowish brown or purplish, lanceo- 

 late-oblong, acute or acutish, the 

 outer woolly at the base ; achenes 

 roughish. [G. luteoalbuni' of 

 Reade.] 



Occasional in sandy soil. Native. 

 Distribution : Continental North 

 America, Jamaica. Flowers in spring. 

 Its fruit was presumably brought to 

 Bermuda on the wind. 



5. SOLIDAGO L. 



Perennial erect herbs, sometimes woody at the base, simple, or little 

 branched, with alternate simple, toothed or entire leaves, and small heads of 

 both tubular and radiate yellow or rarely white flowers, in terminal or axillary 

 panicles, thyrsi, or cymose-corymbose or capitate clusters. Involucre oblong 

 or narrowly campanulate, its bracts imbricated in several series, the outer 

 successively shorter. Receptacle small, flat, or somewhat convex, generally 

 alveolate. Ray-flowers in one series, pistillate. Disk-flowers mostly all per- 

 fect, their corollas tubular or narrowly campanulate, 5-cleft or 5-lobed. 

 Anthers obtuse and entire at the base. Style-branches flattened, their ap- 

 pendages lanceolate. Achenes terete or angled, usually ribbed. Pappus of 

 numerous capillary rough nearly equal bristles in 1 or 2 series. [Greek, to 

 make whole.] About 125 species, mostly of North America, several in Europe, 

 a few in Mexico and South America. Type species: Solidago Virga-aurea L. 



