246 COMPOSITE. Iva. 



* Heads nearly sessile, crowded in narrow spiciform clusters which are aggregated in a panicle. 



I. xanthiifolia, NUTT. Tall and coarse (3 to 5 feet high), pubescent, at least when young : 

 leaves mainly opposite, long-petioled, broadly ovate, ample, coarsely or incisely serrate, acu- 

 minate, 3-ribbed at base, puberulently scabrous above, arid when young canesceut beneath : 

 panicles axillary and terminal : involucre depressed-hemispherical, biserial ; outer of 5 

 broadly ovate herbaceous bracts; inner of as many membrauaceous dilated-obovate or trun- 

 cate ones, which are strongly concave at maturity and half embrace the obovate-pyriforrn 

 and glabrate akeues (011 the apex of which sometimes persists a minute crown answering 

 to the obsolete corolla, or this wholly absent). Gen. ii. 185. /. (Picrotus) xanthiifolia & 

 paniculata, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 347. Cijclachcena xanthiifolia, Fresenius, 1. c. ; 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 286. Eitphrosyne xanthiifolia, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 85. Alluvial 

 ground or along streams. Saskatchewan and Nebraska to New Mexico, Utah, aud Washing- 

 ton Terr. ; first coll. by Nultall. 



I. dealbata, GRAY. A foot or two high, canescent with floccose wool except the elongated 

 and narrow terminal panicle: leaves in greater part alternate, soft-tomeutose, reticulate- 

 veiny (l to 3 inches long), from obscurely angulate-toothed to laciuiately piuuatifid, cune- 

 ately or abruptly contracted at base into a short winged petiole: heads only a line long: 

 involucre of only 5 obovate concave somewhat herbaceous bracts : corolla of fertile flowers a 

 short cup or ring: akeues pyriform, roughish and glandular. PI. Wright, i. 104. Val- 

 leys of S. W. Texas, Wright, Bigelow. (Adj. Mex., T/iurber, &c.) 



* * Heads pedicellate, in looser panicles, more or less leafy- bract eate : habit and foliage of 

 Euphrasy ne. 



I. ambrosicBfolia. A foot or two high, hirsute or villous-liispid, paniculately branched : 

 leaves almost all alternate, thin, twice or thrice pinnately parted into small oblong lobes : 

 involucre of 5 broadly ovate herbaceous outer bracts, and as many smaller obovate thin- 

 scarious inner ones : corolla of fertile flowers a mere vestige : akenes turgid-obovate. 

 Euphrosjne ambrosicefolia, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 102, ii. 85. W. borders of Texas and ad- 

 jacent New Mexico, Wright. (Mex.) 



2. IVA proper. Heads spicately or racemosely disposed in the axils of leaves 

 or foliaceous bracts, and nodding: fertile flowers with evident corolla. lea, 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 28G ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. 1. c. 



* Heads in terminal and solitary or paniculate compact squarrosely bracteate spikes: leaves not 

 coriaceous: root annual. 



I. ciliata, WILLD. 1 lather stout, 2 to 6 feet high, strigose-hispidulous and hispid : leaves 

 nearly all opposite, ovate, acuminate, sparsely serrate, the base abruptly contracted into a 

 hispid petiole : spikes strict, 3 to 8 inches long; their bracts lanceolate and ovate-lanceolate, 

 foliaceous, surpassing the at length deflexed heads, hispid-ciliate, as are the 3 or 4 (rarely 5) 

 herbaceous and unequal distinct or partly united bracts of the involucre : akenes about 3, 

 obovate, moderately flattish. Spec. iii. 2386; Pursh, Fl. ii. 580; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 287. 

 l.annua, Michx. Fl. ii. 184, not L., unless possibly the detailed illustration by Schmidel 

 should represent a state of it much altered in cultivation. Ambrosia Pitcher i, Torr. in 

 Hook. Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 99, with a var. having linear and much elongated bracts to the 

 spike. Moist alluvial ground, Illinois to Nebraska, and south to Louisiana, Texas, and 

 New Mexico. (Adj. Mex., Berlandier.) 



* * Heads more loosely disposed in the axils of ordinary leaves, or upper ones commonly in the 

 axils of foliaceous bracts, 



-j Rather many-flowered; the fertile flowers 5 or rarely fewer: perennials or shrubby, with thick- 

 is-h and firm somewhat flesh v or coriaceous leaves. 



H- Bracts of the fleshy-herbaceous involucre 6 to 9, imbricated in two or more ranks ; and those 



among the numerous sterile flowers linear-spatulate. 



I. imbricata, WALT. A foot or two high from a suffrutescent base, honey-scented, smooth 

 and glabrous or nearly so : stems thickish, ascending : leaves mainly alternate, fleshy, from 

 spatulate-oblong to narrowly lanceolate, sessile, some of the larger (1 or 2 inches long) 

 sparingly serrate: heads large for the genus (3 or 4 lines long), commonly pedunculate, the 

 lower surpassed by and the upper surpassing the subtending leaves : involucre hemispherical- 

 campanulate, the outer bracts orbicular : sterile flowers many, the fertile 2 to 4 : akenes 



