COMPOSITE FAMILY 



at the summit of the stems and branches. 

 Found in low grounds and wayside thickets. 

 Quebec to Manitoba, south to Florida and New 

 Mexico. July-September. 



Stems. — Smooth, branching, three to seven feet high. 



Leaves. — Smooth or roughish, the lowest with five to 

 seven cut or three-lobed leaflets; the upper leaves ir- 

 regularly three to five-parted, often entire. 



Flower-heads. — Large, yellow, three to four inches 

 across, borne on long peduncles. Rays six to ten, ob- 

 long, neutral, more or less drooping. Disk-florets fer- 

 tile. Receptacle convex, becoming elongated in fruit. 

 Pappus a short crown. 



The Cut-Leaved Rudbeckia differs consider- 

 ably in appearance from the others of the Sun- 

 flower group. Its flower-heads begin life broad 

 and flat — facing the sun — but as time goes on 

 and the disk-florets are fertilized, and the akenes 

 begin to mature the receptacle lengthens, be- 

 comes cylindrical, and the rays begin to droop; 

 this continuing some little time before the final 

 collapse, which occurs as the last florets open. 

 The leaves are cut and cleft and lobed almost to 

 the point of formlessness, although there seems 



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