Vernonia. COMPOSITiE. 57 



Subtribe 1. VERNONiEiE, Cass. — Heads discoid ; the flowers all perfect. 

 Branches of the style elongated or acuminate. — Leaves mostly alternate. 

 Flowers of the cyanic series, viz., white, blue, purple, or red, but never 

 yellow. 



1. VERNONIA. Schreh. gen. p. 541 ,- DC. prodr. 5. p. 15. 



Heads several-many-flowered ; the flowers all equal and tubular. Invo- 

 lucre imbricate, shorter than the flowers ; the inner scales longest. Recepta- 

 cle commonly naked. Corolla regular; the lobes about the length of the 

 tube. Filaments smooth. Achenia mostly striate or ribbed, with a cartila- 

 ginous callus at the base. Pappus usually double ; the interior of copious 

 capillary bristles ; the exterior mostly short or minute, often somewhat 

 squamellate or chaffy. — Mostly perennial herbs or shrubby jtlants (chiefly 

 tropical), with usually alternate leaves, and various inflorescence, in the 

 North American species corymbose-cymose. Flowers purple, rose-color, 

 or white. 



* Caidine leaves very few : cyme dichotomous-paniculate. 



1. V. oligophylla {Michx.) : stem slender, simple, nearly naked above; 

 leaves scabrous, often punctate, pubescent on the veins beneath ; the radical 

 ones oval or obovate-oblong, denfnte-serrate, narrowed at the base ; the cau- 

 line (2-4) much smaller, lanceolate, serrulate; heads few, in a loose i)anicu- 

 late or dichotomous cyme, 15-30-flowered ; involucre carnpanulate, much 

 shorter than the mature pappus; the scales with spreading acuminate tips, 

 lanceolate, ciliate ; achenia 10-ribbed, nearly glabrous when mature. — 

 Michx. ! fl. 2. p. 94 ; Nutt. ! gen. 2. p. 134 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 286 ; Less, in Lin- 

 ncea, 6. p. 677 ; DC! prodr. b. p. 62. Chrysocoma acaulis, Walt. Car. p. 

 196, fide Pursh. 



Damp pine barrens, N. Carolina I to Florida! June-July. — li Stem 

 1-3 feet high, a little hairy ; the root stoloniferous according to Elliott. Ex- 

 terior scales of involucre loose, subulate, sometitiies as long as the inner. 

 Corolla purple. 



* * Stem leafy : cyvies corymbose or somcivkai uvibelliform. 



2. V. Noveboracensis (Willd.) : stem striate, slightly pubescent ; leaves lan- 

 ceolate or elliptical-lanceolate, sharply serrate, acute at each end, often 

 petioled, glabrous or slightly scabrous above; cyme fastigiate; heads nume- 

 rous, 20-30-flowered ; "involucre hemispherical-campanulate, shorter than 

 the pappus; the scales appressed, ovate, mostly produced into a subulate or 

 filiform flexuous appendage; several of the outermost subulate, loose and 

 bract eolate ; achenia glabrous or slightly hairy when young, glandular, 

 shorter than the pappus.— Willd. spec. 3. p. 1632; DC! ]}rodr. 5. p. 63. 

 V. praealta. Less.! in Linncea, 4. p. 264 ; Hook. ! fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 304 ; 

 Darlingt. ! fl. Cest. p. 448. Serratula Noveboracensis, &c. Linn. ! hort. 

 CliJ. p. 392, Sf spec. 2. p. 818. 



(i. scales of the involucre acute or acuminate, some of them usually with 

 subulate or filiform points.— V. praealta, Willd.! I. c. (not of DC) Serra- 

 tula prsealta & glauca, Linn. ! spec. I. c. 



y. stem, cyme, and lower surface of the leaves tomentose ; scales with 

 long filiform points— V. tomentosa. Ell. sk. 2. p- 288. Chrysocoma tomen- 

 tosa. Wall. Car. p. 196. 



