linear, to 10 cm. long, 1-1.5 mm. broad, entire, glabrous, minutely pitted; 

 inflorescence paniculate-cymose; heads about 12 mm. high, 4-6 mm. wide, 

 10- to 14-flowercd; phyllaries appressed and imbricated, acute or acuminate, 

 glabrous or with short-ciliate margins, the inner ones purple; achenes 3-4 mm. 

 long, very slightly scabrous along the ribs. 



In wet gravel along edge of rivers and at edge of lakes, in Okla. (Pushmataha 

 and McCurtain cos.) and Ark., July-Sept. 



5. Vemonia missurica Raf. 



Erect, 10-15 dm. tall, branched in the upper parts, pubescent; leaves numerous; 

 blades spreading, firm-membranous, sessile to short-petioled, lanceolate to ovate- 

 lanceolate, 6-15 cm. long, 1.5-5 cm. broad, long-acuminate, sharply and coarsely 

 serrate to nearly entire, acute or rounded at base, dark-green and scabrellate 

 above, tomentose beneath at least along the veins; involucre broadly campanulate, 

 short-cylindric or hemispheric, 6-8 mm. high; phyllaries appressed, closely and 

 regularly imbricate, purplish or greenish, broadly rounded-keeled (the midnerve 

 not narrowly prominent) or flat, glabrous or pubescent (in genetically contaminated 

 plants with some resin-globules), arachnoid-ciliate at the margins, rounded, obtuse 

 usually; flowers about 35 to 55 per head; achenes about 4 mm. long, resinous in 

 the furrows. V. Drummondii Shuttlew. 



In standing water and wet ditches and ponds, along streams, low woods, wooded 

 swamps, low meadows, prairies and fields, in Okla. (McCurtain Co.), local or 

 locally abundant in s.e. Tex., infrequent to rare in e. Tex., and in N. M. (Lincoln 

 Co.), July-Sept.; Ont. and O. to la. and Neb., s. to Ala., Miss., Ark., Okla., Tex. 

 and N.M. 



6. Vemonia altissima Nutt. Fig. 743. 



Stems erect, 1-3 m. tall, branched above, glabrous or nearly so; leaf blades 

 thin, narrowly elliptic to lanceolate or lance-ovate, 15-25 cm. long, 3-7 cm. 

 broad, long-acuminate, gradually attenuate basally, sharply and irregularly serrate 

 to nearly entire, essentially glabrous above, beneath with short straight conic 

 projections or (in genetically contaminated plants) with some curly hairs along 

 the veins; involucre campanulate, 4-5 mm. high or rarely larger; phyllaries ap- 

 pressed, regularly imbricate, ovate to oblong-ovate, glabrous or puberulent, 

 sparsely ciliate or entire, obtuse or rounded to acute or short-cuspidate; flowers 

 (13 to) 21 to 29 per head; achenes usually with hispidulous ribs, often lacking 

 resin-globules, 3-4 mm. long. 



In gravel bars along rivers and streams, low thickets, low woods, wet meadows 

 and prairies in s.e. Okla. (LeFlore Co.) and reported in e. Tex., Aug.-Oct.; N.Y. 

 to O. and Mo., s. to S.C., Ga., La., Okla., and (?) Tex. 



2. Liatris Schreb. Gay-feather. Button-snakeroot. 



Blazing-star 



Perennial herbs from underground corms; leaves elongate, linear to ovate- 

 lanceolate, sessile, more or less conspicuously punctate with impressed and 

 resinous dots or not so punctate, the radical leaves usually much longer than the 

 stem leaves that diminish in length upwards; heads disposed in various ways, 

 usually in spiciform or racemiform arrangements, each head with few to many 

 flowers; ray flowers absent; disk flowers usually numerous, rarely as few as 4; 

 receptacle naked, essentially flat; involucre of several series of imbricated phyl- 

 laries; phyllaries variously shaped, usually firm throughout, often marginally 

 ciliate or erose; corolla typically purple, rarely white, never yellow, radially 

 symmetrical, the cylindrical tube usually exceeding the pappus or twice as long 



1595 



