SoLiDAGo. ■ COMPOSITE. 201 



the base (pedunculate) ; the lower about 3 inches in length but rather shorter 

 than the subtendi no; leaves; the upper successively shorter, but longer than 

 the reduced narrowly lanceolate and nearly entire leaves : heads usually 

 crowded on the branches of the raceme, on "short pedicels, or nearly sessile. 

 Scales of the involucre glabrous or minutely granular, similar to the original 

 S. ambigua, or perhaps a little broader. Achenia canescently hairy. — If we 

 mistake not, this is by no means an uncommon species in the mountains of 

 North Carolina, but we have only seen the living plant before the flowering 

 season. 



* * Racemes terminal, erect, iwt secund, either simple and virgaie, or compound and 

 paniculate : leaves feather-veined. — VirgatK. 



11. <S. virsata (Michx.) : glabrous throughout; stem virgafe, simple, 

 very slender ; leaves somewhat fleshy, entire, with scabrous margins; the 

 radical and lowest cauline oblong-spalulate or oblanceolate, often obscurely 

 serrate, petioled ; the others small, appressed, lanceolate-oblong, sessile ; 

 those of the attenuated upper part of the stem very small and bract-like; 

 heads (middle-sized) numerous, in a very strict or spiciform compound ra- 

 ceme; scales of the involucre linear-lanceolate, glabrous; rays 5-7, elon- 

 gated; achenia pubescent. — Michx. ! fi. 2. 'p. 117,- Pursh, ji. 2. p. 538; 

 Nutt. ! gen. 2. p. 160 ; Ell. ! sk. 2. p. 384 ; DC. prodr. 5. p. 338. 



Pine barrens, mostly in damp soil. New .Jersey ! to Florida ! and Ala- 

 bama ! Sept.-Oct.— (June to Oct., Ell.)— Stem 2-4 feet high, very strict 

 and simple, leafy throughout, but the leaves of the upper part of the stem 

 reduced to mere bracts (one-half to one-fourth of an inch in length), termin- 

 ated by a virgate compact raceme, 3-12 inches long, which is composed of 

 short approximate racemes, bearing 3-6 heads; the short peduncles and 

 slender pedicels appressed, glabrous, furnished with subulate bracts. The 

 general raceme is often more or less secund; and occasionally the inflores- 

 cence is more compound and paniculate. Heads about 16-flowered. Ex- 

 terior scales of the involucre short and often subulate ; the inner rather acute. 

 Radical leaves 5-8 inches long, including the margined petiole, 6-12 lines 

 wide, obscurely serrulate, or not unfrenuently quite entire. 



12. S. i^ulverulenta (Nutt.) : minutely and softly puberulent; stem sirnple, 

 virgate, verv leafy ; cauline leaves short, obovate-oblong, obscurely veined, 

 mostly entire, often mucronate-acute, attenuate at the base, sessile ; the radi- 

 cal and lowentiost oblong or spatulate, serrate, tapering into a petiole ; heads 

 numerous, crowded on the short peduncles, and disposed in a long and strict 

 compound raceme ; scales of the involucre narrow!}^ lanceolate, acute, ap- 

 pressed ; rays about 10, elongated; achenia glabrous. — Nutt.! gen. 2. 

 p. 161 ; Ell. sk. 2. p. 384 ; DC. prodr. 5. p. 338. 



/?. peduncles somewhat elongated, and often spreading, forming an ex- 

 panded compound raceme. 



Georgia and Florida, Baldwin. Alabama, Dr. Gates ! North Carolina, 

 Mr. Curtis ! Sept. — Stem 2-3 feet high, very strict and simple, terminating 

 in a narrow and somewhat spicate raceme (rarely more expanded and com- 

 pound), 8-10 inches in length. Radical and lowest cauline leaves similar to 

 those of S. puberula; the others gradually diminishing from an inch and a 

 half to half an inch in length, and from 6 to 3 lines in Isreadth, obovate or ob- 

 long; the lower often serrate. Heads as large as in S. puberula, but fewer- 

 (20-25)-flowered : the puberulent involucre nearly similar, but the scales 

 rather broader. — Distinguished tVom the too closely allied 8. puberula by 

 the more manifest cinereous pubescence, the short and broad cauline leaves, 

 and the contracted virgate iullorescence; but in some speciunMis (var. /j.)the 

 lower peduncles are jirolonged into racemes of considerable length. 

 VOL. II. — 26 



