COMPOSITE FAMILY 225 



ing branches, ripen like tiny thistles, and give the plants 

 the appearance of great plumes. E. leptophyllum, of simi- 

 lar habit, grows in damp soil, but bears its flowering-heads 

 along only one side of the branches. Several of this genus 

 resemble white ageratums, and are commonly caUed by 

 that name, but may be distinguished by their hairy pappus, 

 which ageratums do not have. 



A tropical climbing hempweed, Mihania cordifolia, with 

 larger and softer leaves than the northern M. scandens, 

 and with fragrant flowers, is a common vine near the 

 coast, where it blooms nearly all the year. 



A wonderful harvest is shown in early winter by the 

 sea-myrtle, or groundsel-tree, Baccharis, which, after its 

 dull flowering season has passed, covers itself with floc- 

 culent masses of white, when the silvery pappus of the 

 ripening heads gives the shrubs the appearance of being 

 in full bloom. 



An introduced weed from the West Indies, Emilia son- 

 chifolia, blooms all the year in southern Florida, showing 

 small red flowering-heads, like miniature carnations. 



Less attractive than others of this group, but very com- 

 mon in cultivated grounds in winter and spring, are the 

 homely cudweeds, Gnaplialium, of low growth, with silvery 

 or woolly gray-green leaves, and minute heads crowded in 

 woolly spikes, as, on a larger scale, are the heads of black- 

 root, Pterocaulon, a common plant that is easily identified 

 by its oddly winged stems, down which the bases of the 

 leaf-blades extend. 



In this group should be included a somewhat aberrant 

 rayless sunflower, Helianthics Radula, abundant in low 

 pinelands, where the long-stalked, solitary, dark brown 

 heads grow by hundreds in late summer and autumn, 

 and even when freshly blooming appear like flowers that 

 have "gone to seed." At any season the plant may be 

 recognized by its hairy leaves which lie on the ground in a 

 cross-shaped group. 



