Verbesina. COMPOSITE. 287 



disk from flattish to low conical : awns of the pappus not hooked : ours all per- 

 ennial herbs. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 11. 



* Akenes wholly wingless: receptacle nearly flat: flowers yellow, the rays 1 to 5, lanceolate: 



leaves opposite. 



V. OCCidentalis, WALT. Green and minutely pubescent or glabrous, 4 to 7 feet high, with 

 erect narrowly 4-winged branches, leafy up to the short peduncles of the corymbosely panicu- 

 late open cymes: leaves ovate and the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, acutelv ser- 

 rate, the larger about 8 inches long, contracted into a margined petiole : involucre oblong, 

 4 or 5 lines high: akenes obovate-oblong, pubescent. Car. 213. F. Siegesbeckia, Michx! 

 Fl. ii. 1.34; DC. Prodr. v. 616 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 358. Siegesbeckia occidentalis'~L. Spec, 

 ii. 900, & PI. Grouov. V. Pluxthusa, Cass. Diet. Ii. 476, & lix. 149; DC. Prodr. 1. c., but 

 there are no squamellae. Phcethusa Americana, Gau-tn. Fruct. ii. 425, t. 169, f. 3, hairs at 

 summit of akeue exaggerated, and awns missing. P. borealis, Spreng. Syst. iii. 591. Core- 

 opsis alatu, Pursh, Fl. ii. 567, therefore Actinomrns alata, Nutt. Gen. 181. Borders of 

 woods and banks, S. Peun. to Illinois and Florida. 



* * Akenes or most of them broadly winged at maturity, but variable: receptacle convex to con- 

 ical : flowers both of ray and disk white or whitish; the anthers blackish : rays 3 to 5, obovate, 

 short: leaves alternate. 



V. Virginica, L. Minutely tomentose-pubescent or puberuleut, 3 to 6 feet high : stem or 

 branches winged or wingless : leaves green and glabrate or minutely hispidulous-scabrous 

 above, cinereous to cauescent beneath, ovate or the upper narrower, from denticulate to 

 coarsely serrate, contracted below into a winged petiole: heads small, 3 or 4 lines high, 

 crowded on the irregular branches of the compound paniculate naked cyme : bracts of the 

 involucre lanceolate, rather obtuse, erect, pubescent : awns of the pappus slender, sometimes 

 obsolete. Spec. ii. 901 ; Walt. 1. c. ; Michx. 1. c. ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 359. V. pa- 

 niculata, Poir. Diet. viii. 456. V. microptera, DC. 1. c. ; akeues sometimes but not always 

 imperfectly winged. V. polycepliala, DC. 1. c., rather robust form. V. villosa, Nutt. Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 370, a tomeiitose form. V. Texana, Buckley in Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 

 458. Rich dry soil, Peun. ? and Illinois to Florida and Texas. (Mex.) 



Var. laciniata. Leaves variously and irregular sinuate- or laciniate-lobed, rarely 

 almost to the midrib ; the principal lobes 3 to 5. Siegesbeckia laciniata, Poir. Diet. vii. 158. 

 Verbesina laciniata, Nutt. Gen. ii. 170. V. sinuuta, Ell. Sk. ii. 411 ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr.'& Gray, 

 1. c. Along the coast, S. Carolina to Florida. 



2. PxEROrHYTox. Heads (solitary or scattered) comparatively broad : in- 

 volucre more or less imbricated, all or at least the inner bracts erect or appressed : 

 disk convex to oval and the akenes all erect in fruit ; the receptacle from convex 

 to conical : rays several to numerous, either neutral or styliferous (even in the 

 same species), but almost always infertile: akenes flat: awns of the pappus not 

 hooked, often obsolete or wanting: perennial herbs. Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. 

 xix. 12. Part of Pterophyton, Cass., & of Actinomeris, Nutt. 



* Stems wholly wingless and marginless: leaves long and linear, not decurrent: bracts of the in- 

 volucre narrow, the outer loose and disposed to become foliaceous. 



V. longifolia, GRAY. Stems slender, smooth and glabrous, 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, 

 branching at summit and bearing several heads : leaves alternate or some 2-3-nate, sessile, 

 scabrous, reticulate-veiny and with prominent midrib, 4 to 9 inches long, quarter to half inch 

 wide : head hemispherical, half-inch high, with flattish disk, often subtended by one or two 

 linear leaf-like bracts: involucral bracts linear: rays about 15, neutral, inch long: akenes 

 obovate, smooth, with narrow wing, a shallow notch, and no awns or rarely a rudimentary 

 one. Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 12. Actinomeris long/folia, Gray, PL Wright, ii. 89. Mountains 

 of S. Arizona, Wright, Rothrock, &c. 



* * Stems wholly wingless: leaves ovate to oblong, sessile, not decurrent, mostly opposite: 

 bracts of the involucre broader and closer: rays not rarely styliferous. 



V. \Vrightii, GRAY, 1. c. Scabrous and mostly hispidulous : stems stout, 1 to 3 feet high, 

 somewhat branching, bearing few or solitary long-peduliculate showy heads : leaves from 



