192 COMPOSITE FAMILY. 



24. EUPATpBIUM, THOROUGHWORT, BONESET. (Old name, 



dedicated to Eupator Mithridutcs, who is said to have used the European spe- 

 cies in medicine. Most of tin 1 ~i-< n> are American.) y, 



E. glechonoph^llum, >t Chili, and one or two other somewhat woody- 



stemmed and white-lli>wered species arc cultivated in greenhou-es fur winter- 

 blooming. The following are the commonest wild species; fl. late .summer 

 and autumn. 



1 . leaves 3-6 in a irlior! : heads 5 1 5- flowered, cylindrical, the purplish 

 sralts r/u.sWy iniliririiti-d in si n-ml rows: flowers flesh-colored. 



E. purpureum, IYRPI.E T. or JoK-PvE WEED. Low grounds, with 

 simple stems 3 - \"2 high, with or without purplish spots or dot-, MTV veinj 

 oblong-ovate roughish-toothed and pointed leaves on petioles, and dense corn- 

 pound corymbs. 



2. Leaves opposite (or only the uppermost alternate) and sessile : heads corymbed, 

 the scales more or less imbricated: flowers white. 



* Leaves united at base around the stem in pairs (connate-perfoliate) . 



E. perfoliatum, THOROUGH WOKT or UONESET. Low grounds every- 

 where (the bitter infusion used as a popular medicine), 2-4 hi^h, hairy ; the 

 lanceolate leaves taper-pointed, serrate, very veim and somewhat wrinkled, 

 5' - 8' long; the very numerous heads crowded in a dense corymb, 10-30- 

 tiowered. 



* * leaves separate at base : heads mostly 5 - S-fl 



E. Sessilif61ium, on shady hanks, is smooth, 4 -6 high, with lance- 

 ovate serrate leaves (3' -6' long) tapering from a rounded closely sessile base to 

 a slender point, and small heads in very compound Hat corymbs. 



E. pubescens, in dry soil chiefly near the coast, only 2 high, with ovate 

 acute and toothed downy leaves, and 7-8 flowers in the heads. 



E. rotundif61ium, in similar places and like the foregoing, but with 

 roundish-ovate blunt leaves more deeply toothed, and 5-flowered heads. 



E. teucrifblium, in low grounds near the coast, r m^hish-puhesecnt, 

 with ovate-oblong or lance-oblong veiny deeply few-toothed leaves and small 

 corymbs. 



E. album, in sandy soil from New Jersey S., 2 high, is roughish-hairy, 

 with oblong-lanceolate coarsely toothed and strongly veiny leaves, and heads 

 crowded in the corymb, the lanceolate and pointed scale- of the involucre white 

 above and larger than the flowers. 



E. altissimum, in dry soil from lYnn. to 111 and S., is stout and tall, 

 3-7 high, downy, with lanceolate leaves (resembling those of some Golden- 

 rods) tapering to both ends and conspicuously 3-nerved, either entire or toothed 

 above the middle ; corymbs druse ; scales of the involucre blunt. 



E. hyssopifdlium, in dry, sterile soil, from Mass. S., l-2 high, 

 smoothish, with narrow linear or lanceolate blunt 1 - 3-nerved leaves. 



3. Lvuns iittn-natr or the lower opposite, all long-prtioled : corymbs comjmmd : 

 flowers 12-15 in thp. head, small, irlu'tr. 



E. serotinum, in low grounds from Maryland to III. & S., minutely 

 pubescent, tall (3 -6 high), bushy-branched; leaves ovate-lanceolate and 

 taper-pointed, triple-ribbed, coarsely 'toothed, 5' -6' long; the involucre very 

 down. 



4. h'in;x /./>.""'''<'. i-ti,,!i,l, tri/ih'-ri/ilnil : /;.,/,/. / ,-<<n/ntl<s, S-:?i)-//,))/?ererf, the 

 xr.-lis <>t tin' inrn/iirri' K/IIH/ inn/ utmost in <m< i;nr : t! m; /x white. 



E. ageratoides, WHITE SNAKE-ROOT. Common in woods, especially 

 N., -J" high, smooth, with broadly ovate long-petioled coarsely and sharply 

 toothed thin leaves (4'- 5' long), and heads of handsome pure-white flowers ill 

 compound corvmbs. 



E. aromaticum, like the preceding, but commoner S. and only near the 

 coast ; more slender, usually less smooth, with thicker leaves more bluntly 

 toothed on short petioles, the corymbs usually less compound. 



