110 COMPOSITE. Liatris. 



ii. 275; Torr. & Gray, 1. c., not Pursh. L. graminifolia, Willd. Spec. iii. 1636, excl. syn. 

 Walt. & hab. ; Muhl. Cat. 73. L. stricta, Macnab in Ediub. Phil. Jour. xix. 60. L. JJexuosa, 

 D. Thomas, in Am. Jour. Sci. xxvii. 338 ? Dry prairies and Open woodlands, Upper Canada 

 and Michigan to Minnesota and Missouri. 



* * * Pappus distinctly plumose to the naked eye : heads 3-6-flowered : bracts of the involucre 

 acuminate or mucronate, coriaceo-herbaceous, not appendaged: corolla-lobes naked : leaves all 

 narrowly linear or the upper acerose. 



L. punctata, HOOK. Stems a span to 30 inches high from a thick and branching or some- 

 times globular stock, stout : leaves as well as bracts commonly punctate, rigid : head 4-6- 

 flowered, oblong or cylindraceous, thickish, from half to three-fourths inch long, mostly 

 numerous and crowded in a dense (below leafy) spike: bracts of the involucre oblong, 

 abruptly or sometimes more gradually cuspidate-acuminate, often lauugiuous-ciliate : pappus 

 almost as plumose as in the preceding. Fl. i. 306, t. 55; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. L. cylindrica, 

 Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 210. L. resinosa, DC. Prodr. v. 129 (pi. Arkaus.), not Nutt. 

 Dry prairies and plains, Saskatchewan and Minnesota west to Montana and Colorado, south 

 to Texas and New Mexico. (Mex.) 



L. acidota, ENGELM. & GRAY. Stem a foot or two high from a globose or at length elon- 

 gated tuber : leaves very slender : heads 3-5-flowered, three-fourths to half an inch long, 

 numerous in a slender and strict naked spike : bracts of the involucre rather few, thiunish, 

 mostly glabrous, ovate- and oblong-lanceolate, gradually or abruptly acuminate or cuspidate- 

 mucrouate: pappus short-plumose. PI. Lindh. i. 10; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 83. L. mvcronata, 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 70, not DC. Prairies of Texas, Drummond, Writ/Id, Lindheimer, &c. 

 Var. vernalis, Engelm. & Gray, 1. c., is a depauperate vernal form. 



Var. mucronata. Heads and flowers smaller; iuvolucral bracts abruptly mu- 

 cronate-pointed. L. mucronata, Engelm. & Gray, PL Liiidh. i. 10. Texas, Lindheimer. 



L. Boykini, TOER. & GRAY. Glabrous: stem very slender, afoot or two high: leaves 

 punctate ; lower narrowly linear, upper acerose : heads rather numerous in a strict naked 

 spike, 3-4-flowered, hardly half-inch long : bracts of the involucre only about 8, thin, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, the inner somewhat scarious at margins and tip : pappus short-plu- 

 mose. Fl. ii. 70. Near Columbus, Georgia, Doijkin. Not since found. 



# * * * Pappus from barbellulate to minutely short-plumose under a lens, not to the naked eye. 



) Heads subglobose or hemispherical, 15-40-flowered : involucral bracts mostly spatulate, many- 

 rankc'd, somewhat spreading : corolla-lobes comparatively short. 



L. scariosa, WILLD. Pubescent or glabrate : stem stout, 1 to 5 feet high : leaves spatulate- 

 or oblong-lanceolate and tapering into a petiole (4 to 6 inches long, half-inch to inch and a 

 half wide) ; upper narrowly lanceolate ; uppermost small, linear, sessile : heads racemose or 

 spicate, few or numerous (3 to 50), mostly 25-40-flowered and about an inch high and wide : 

 iuvolucral bracts broadest and rounded at summit, there either herbaceous or scarious edged 

 and tinged with purple (rarely white-scarious) : pappus-bristles minutely barbellate. 

 Willd. Spec. iii. 1G35; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1709; Ker, Bot. Reg. t. 590; Lindl. Bot. Reg. 

 t. 1654; Meehan, Nat. Flowers, ser. 2, ii t. 29. L. aspera & sphceroidea, Michx. Fl. ii. 92. 

 L. scariosa & L. sphceroidea, DC. 1. c. L. sphceroidea, Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 87. L. borealis, 

 Nutt. in Paxt. Mag. v. t. 27. L. sqnarrosa, Sweet, Brit. Fl. Card. t. 44 1 Serratula scariosa, 

 L. Spec. ii. 818. Dry and usually sandy ground, Upper Canada and New England to the 

 Saskatchewan, west to the Rocky Mountains, south to Florida and Texas. Varies greatly ; 

 in the involucre, which is either herbaceous or with the tips largely scarious and colored ; in 

 the size of the heads, &c., passing into the extreme microcephalous form (which except for 

 the transitions would be regarded as a distinct species), viz. : 



Var. squarrulosa. Comparatively small and slender: heads merely half or two- 

 thirds inch long, 14-20-flowesed : involncral scales narrower, innermost sometimes linear or 

 lanceolate and acutish. L. squarrulosa, Michx. 1. c. L. heterophylln, R. Br. in Ait. Kew. 

 ed. 2, iv. 503; Pursh, Fl. ii. 508 ; Nutt. Gen. ii. 131. Open woods, N. Carolina to Texas. 

 The heads of ordinary L. scariosa, when abnormally numerous and paniculate, are some- 

 times reduced to the smallest size. 

 -f H Heads oblong, 5-flowered: involucre squarrose by the spreading colored tips of the bracts. 



L. pycnostachya, MICHX. Hirsute, or below glabrous: stem stout, 3 to 5 feet high: 

 leaves crowded throughout ; the lower lanceolate and the upper very narrowly linear : spike 





