SOMDAGO. COMPOSITE. 197 



other with that appellation, is to be found in the Banksian herbarium (which 

 is Pursh's sole authority for the plant), we have not presumed to discard the 

 more appropriate name of S. S(|uarrosa; especially since Pursh's description, 

 though chiefly applicable, is not sufficient to decide the point. 



§2. Herbaceous: rays mostly fewer than the disk-flowers, rarely wanting: 

 heads more or less pedicellate, variously disjjosed. — Virgaurea. (Tourn.) DC. 



* Heads in axillary clusters or sliort racemes, and often racemose at the extremity of the 

 stem or braiiches: leaves feat/ier-vcincd. — GlomeruliflorEe. 



t Racemes or clusters often longer than the leaves, and racemose or spicate at the 

 summit of the stem or branches. 



3. <S. hicolor (Linn.) : hairy and often cinereous ; stem simple, or some- 

 times branched at the summit; leaves oblong or elliptical-lanceolate, acute 

 at each end ; the upper sessile and often entire ; the radical and lower cau- 

 iine oval or spatulate-oblong, serrate, tapering into a petiole ; heads in glome- 

 rate clusters or short racemes from the axils of the upper leaves, and forming 

 an interrupted spike, or with the spicate somewhat leafy racemes more or 

 less prolonged and paniculate ; scales of the somewhat glabrous involucre 

 oblong, obtuse ; rays 7-9, short, whitish or ochroleucous ; the disk-flowers 

 (9-14) pale yellow. — Linn.! ma7it. j)- 114 ; Ait.! Kew. {ed. 1) 3. p. 216; 

 Michx.! fl. 2. p. 116 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 537 ; Ell. ! sk. 2. p. 382 ; Bigel. !fl. 

 Bost. ed. 2. p. 306 ; Hook. ! fl. Bor.-A7n. 2. p. 3 ; Darlingt. ! fl. Cest. p. 

 458 ,• DC. ! prodr. 5. p. 335. S. alba, Mill. diet. Virga-Aurea flore albo, 

 &c. Pluk. aim. t. 114, /. 8. Aster bicolor, Nees. synops.; Spreng. syst. 3. 

 p. 536. 



/3. concolor: flowers of the ray and disk yellow. — S. hirsuta, Nutt. ! in 

 jour. acad. Philad. 7. jy. 103, S^' in trans. Amer. jMl. soc. I. c. 



Woodlands and borders of tliickets, Canada ! Saskatchawan ! and North- 

 ern States ! to Kentucky! and the mountains of Georgia. /3. Kentucky, Dr. 

 Short! Near Philadelphia, Mr. Gambell ! Aug.-Sept. — Stem 1-3 feet 

 high, often very hairy or villous towards the base, commonly simple ; the 

 compact axillary clusters of rather large heads approximate and forming an 

 interrupted virgaie spike, leafy below, naked and nearly simple at the sum- 

 mit -, but the lower clusters frequently developed into racemes or branches 

 2-4 inches in length. Leaves more or less hairy on both sides ; the lower 

 2-5 inches long ; theuppergradually reduced in size, less serrate and more ses- 

 sile. Scales of the involucre with greenish tips and midrib. Achenia glabrous or 

 nearly so when mature ; when young sometimes entirely glabrous, but often 

 sparsely pubescent. — We can in no way distinguish the S. hirsuta, Nutt. froin 

 S. bicolor, except by the color of the rays, in which the latter differs from the 

 rest of the genus: these, however, are not pure white in S. bicolor, but cream- 

 color ; and in some specimens, as in those from Saskatchawan mentioned by 

 Hooker, they appear to be light yellow. 



4. S. lanata (Hook.): villous or woolly throughout ; stem branched above ; 

 lower leaves spatulate-oblong, serrate, tapering into margined petioles ; the 

 uppermost and those of the simple virgate branches oblanceolate, mostly 

 entire ; racemes spicate, nearly simple ; scales of the involucre oval or ob- 

 long, obtuse, nearly glabrous ; rays 6-8 ; achenia almost glabrous. — Hook. ! 

 fl. Bor.-Am. 2. p. 4. 



Plains of the Saskatchawan near the Rocky Mountains, Drummond! — 

 Stem apparently about 18 inches high, producing near the summit a few 

 simple and loose elongated branches, terminated by rather dense racemes or 



