Senecio. COMPOSITE. 391 



S. aureus, L. Very early glabrate, usually quite free from wool at flowering (in spring or 

 early summer) and a foot or two high from small rootstocks : radical leaves mostly rounded 

 and undivided, and cauline lanceolate and pinnatifid or laciuiate : most polymorphous species, 

 of which the typical form is bright green, 1 to 3 feet high, surculose by slender rootstocks : 

 leaves thin ; principal radical ones roundish, cordate or truncate at base, creuate-dentate (1 to 

 3 inches in diameter), on long slender petioles ; lower cauline similar, with 2 or 3 lobelets on 

 the petiole, or lyrately divided or lobed ; others more laciniate-pinnatirid and lobes often 

 incised; uppermost sparse and small, with closely sessile or auriculate-dilated incised base: 

 heads rather numerous, 4 or 5 lines high : rays 8 to 12, conspicuous, rarely wanting : akenes 

 quite glabrous. Spec. ii. 870 ; Michx. Fl. ii. 820 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 331 ; DC. Prodr. vi. 432 ; Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. ii. 442; Sprague, Wild Flowers, 77, t. 15, the normal form. S. gracilis, Pursh, 

 Fl. ii. 529 ; DC. 1. c., a slender or depauperate form. S. fasttyiatas, Schweiu. in Ell. 1. c. 



Swamps and wet banks, usually in shaded ground, Newfoundland to Florida, Texas, and 

 to Brit. Columbia and the Sierra Nevada, California. 



Var. obovatus, TORR. & GRAY, 1. c. Radical leaves of thicker texture, rotund with 

 abrupt or truncate base, or obovate aud cuueate-contracted into a short margined petiole, or 

 the earliest in the rosulate tufts almost sessile and humifuse : otherwise as in the typical 

 form. S. obovatus, Muhl. in Willd. Spec. iii. 1999; Pursh, 1. c. ; Ell. 1. c. S. Elliottii, 

 Torr. Gray, Fl. ii. 443. a form with the early radical leaves more plantagiueous and very 

 short-petioled. More open aud moist grounds, Canada to Indiana aud Georgia, in the upper 

 country, characteristically developed southward. 



Var. Balsamitae, TORR. & GRAY, 1. c. Less glabrate, not rarely holding more or 

 less wool until fruiting : depauperate stems a span or two, larger fully 2 feet high : principal 

 or earliest radical leaves oblong, sometimes oval, commonly verging to lanceolate, inch or 

 two long, serrate, contracted into slender petioles ; the succeeding lyrately pinnatifid : heads 

 usually rather small and numerous : akeues almost always bispidulous-pubescent on the 

 angles. S, Balsamitce, Muhl. 1. c. ; Pursh, 1. c. S. Plattensis, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 1. c. 413, a robust aud larger-leaved western form, verging toward S. tomentosus. S. aureus, 

 var. lanceolatus, Oakes in Hovey's Mag., & Torr. & Gray, 1. c., an attenuated form of this, or 

 of the type, growing in shady swamps. S. paitjirrculus, Michx. Fl. ii. 120, depauperate form. 



Rocky or nearly dry ground, Canada to Texas, and northwestward to Brit. Columbia. 

 Var. compactus. A span or two high, in close tufts, rather rigid, when young 



whitened with fine tomentum, glabrate in age : radical leaves oblanceolate or attenuate-spat- 

 ulate, entire or 3-toothed at apex, or pinnatifid-dentate, an inch or more long, thick and firm 

 at maturity ; cauline lanceolate or linear, entire or pinnatifid : heads rather numerous and 

 crowded iu the cyme, rather small : ovaries papillose-hispidulous on the angles. S. aureus, 

 var. borealis, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 125, & Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 68, in part. N. W. 

 Texas ( Wright) to the base of the mountains iu Colorado, Hall & HarLour, Greene, &c. ; 

 mostly iu saline soil. 



Var. borealis, TORR. & GRAY, 1. c. A foot down to a span high, at summit bearing 

 either numerous or few heads ; these not rarely rayless : leaves thickish ; radical from round- 

 ish with abrupt or even truncate base to cuueate-obovate and cuneate-spatulate, half-inch to 

 inch long, slender-petioled ; cauline seldom much piimatifid : akenes glabrous. S. elonyatus, 

 pauciflorus, & Cymhalaria? Pursh, Fl. ii. 529, 530. &. aureus, var. foliosus, &c., Hook. 1. c. 

 S. aureus, var. borealis & var. discoidcus, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. S. cymbalarioides & S. debilis, 

 Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. 408, 412. Labrador to Brit. Columbia, Oregon, the high 

 Sierra Nevada in California, and mountains of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, where are forms 

 undistinguishable from the following. 



Var. croceus, GRAY. A span to a foot or two high, glabrous or early glabrate : 

 leaves somewhat succulent ; radical oblong to roundish, sometimes lyrate ; cauline very 

 various : heads usually numerous in the cyme : flowers saffron-colored or orange, at least the 

 rays, or these sometimes wanting. Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 68; Porter & Coulter, Fl. 

 Colorad. 82; Eaton, Bot. King Exp. 190, & S. Fendleri of the same. S. aureus, var. undti- 

 lobatus, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 411, in part. Wet ground, high mountains of Colorado, Utah, 

 Nevada, north to Montana, and sparingly in the Sierra Nevada ; first coll. by Parry, &c. 



Var. Subnudus. Wholly glabrous or glabrale, slender, a span or two high, bearing 

 2 or 3 small cauline leaves and a solitary head, or not rarely a pair : radical leaves few. 

 spatulate or obovate, sometimes roundish, half-inch or less long, occasionally lyrate : cauline 

 incised or sparingly pinnatifid: rays conspicuous. 5. subnudus, DC. Prodr. vi. 428; Nutt. 



