SoLiDAGo. COMPOSITjE. 215 



lateral branches or racemes mostly short, more or less secund, but seldom 

 recurved : the heads crowded, larger than in S. arguta, and as large as in 

 S. speciosa ; the rays also pretty large. — This plant best deserves the name 

 of S. arguta, for which Muhlenberg and Darlington have taken it : but the 

 original species of that name appears to be the S. ciUaris of these authors. 

 It is said to resemble the S. ambigua, in which species the racemes are 

 not secund, and the achenia are almost villous. 



43. S. Boottii (Rook.) : stem usually branching; radical and lowest cau- 

 line leaves ovate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, on slender margined petioles ; 

 the others lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, appressed-serrate (or the upper en- 

 tire), acuminate at both ends, or contracted into a winged petiole ; racemes 

 loosely paniculate, elongated ; scales of the involucre narrowly oblong, ob- 

 tuse ; rays 2-5; the disk-flowers 8-12 ; achenia minutely pubescent. 



a. stem slender, glabrous ; the lax spreading branches pubescent, bearing 

 (few or solitary) rather loose secund racemes ; leaves glabrous, with scabrous 

 margins, the upper entire. — S. Boottii, Hook. ! compan. to hot. mag. l.p. 97, 

 (the specimens destitute of the lower leaves, &c.) 



/3. stem slender, glabrous ; racemes very loose, paniculate ; lower leaves 

 somewhat pubescent, or sometimes nearly all scabrous-pubescent on both 

 sides. 



y. stem and both surfaces of the leaves scabrous-pubescent ; branches slen- 

 der, bearing rather loose and often simple racemes. 



6. glabrous, except the branches ; stem stouter ; leaves attenuate-acuminate 

 at both ends, often very sharply serrate ; racemes rather dense, secund, re- 

 curved, forming a sparse terminal panicle. — S. juncea? Ell.! sic. 2. p. 375, 

 not of Ait. 



c. ? glabrous; stem stout; leaves rigid, oblong, less acuminate, the lower 

 serrate with spreading teeth; racemes dense, very numerous, forming an 

 ample compound panicle. 



Sandy fields and woods. North Carolina! to Florida! and Louisiana! 

 a. Louisiana, Drmnrnond ! Florida, Dr. Leavenworth! i3. Louisiana, Dr. 

 Leavenworth! Dr. Hale! y. Georgia, Dr. Boykin! 6. Southern States! 

 apparently common, e. Louisiana, Dr. Leavenworth! Dr. Hale! Texas, 

 Drummond. ! Aug.-Oct. — Variable in many respects, yet apparently a well 

 marked species, 2-5 feet high, with rather large heads : when the latter are 

 loose, the pedicels are furnished with several subulate bracts. 



44. S. gracillima: smooth and glabrous throughout; stem virgate, 

 branched towards the summit; the branches strict, very long and slender, 

 leafy, terminated by single virgate secund racemes with the apex somewhat 

 recurved, sometimes compound at the base ; leaves narrowly spatulate- 

 linear, rather obtuse, tapering to the base, with ciliolate-scabrous margins, 

 entire, the lowermost sparingly serrate; scales of the involucre narrowly 

 oblong, obtuse; rays mostly wanting; achenia pubescent. 



Middle Florida, Dr. Chapman !— Stem 2-3 feet high, terete, strict and 

 slender. Leaves rather rigid ; the lowest 3-4 inches long, and about half 

 an inch wide towards the apex, oblanceolate, with a gradually attenuate 

 base or winged petiole, and a rather strong mid-nerve, obsoletely triplinerved 

 above the middle, the veinlets obscure, usually somewhat serrate; the others 

 entire and gradually reduced in size, linear with a narrowed base; those of 

 the branches numerous, about an inch long, scarcely a line in width. Ra- 

 cemes virgate, 3-5 inches long, terminating the numerous branches; the 

 broadly obconic heads entirely unilateral, large in proportion (as large as in 

 S. Boottii), crowded, on very short pedicels: the summit of the main stem 

 often producing a virgate panicle ; the lateral racemes short and spreading. 

 Disk-flowers 10-14: rays none, or very rarely solitary (3-toothed), in the 

 specimens examined. 



