BOTANICAL GAZETTE. 229 



upon high dry sand ridges, we find a brilliant show of fall flowers. 

 Of these one of the most beantiful is Petalosfemon cori/mbosum^ Michx. 

 which grows plentifully on two or three especially dry ridges. Each 

 root sends up a large cluster of simple stems wdiich are about two 

 feet high, each stem crowned with a corymbose spike of white flow- 

 ers. One interesting peculiarity of this flower is the calyx, the 

 "teeth" of which are "setaceous, plumose." In the days when my 

 botanical knowledge of Florida flowers was very small, these same 

 plumose teeth puzzled me very much, for they deceived me, and 

 made me try to place the plant in the Composite family. When my 

 blunder was pointed out by a kind friend, and I read Wood's descrip- 

 tion of this species in 'his ''Class Book of Botany," how I thanked the 

 author for his remark that the "heads resemble the Compositpe, with 

 red scales, and lance-oblong petals." P. carnenm, Michx. resembles 

 P. c.orymbosum^ but the solitary heads are rather larger and fewer, 

 and it is readily distinguished by other characteristics. P. gracile, 

 Nutt., grows in the wiry grass of the barrens, and sometimes it is 

 necessary to find the roots by tracing the diffuse, perhaps nearly pros- 

 trate stems from the flower heads to the root, carefully picking away 

 the tangled grass. The lengthened head of this Petalosfemon gives 

 it the common name of ''Thimble-top." One especially dry place, 

 where the earth is chiefly pure white sand is the only locality of 

 which I know for Gaillardia lanceolata, Michx. The plant is quite pe- 

 culiar in its aspect with its few small leaves and large flowers. The 

 raj^-flowers are yellow above and red on the under side, while the 

 disk flowers are a very dark purple, nearly black. Liatris elegans^ 

 Willd., is a striking ornament to the "piney woods," with its brightly- 

 colored flower-bracts. Some spikes are two feet long and an inch or 

 more in diameter, while an occasional stem has been "topped" by 

 accident and has sent out four or five small spikes. This majestic 

 Liatris is truly elegant, and well deserves its name. Two other hand- 

 some species are L. gracilis^ Pursh. with its slender spike of deep 

 purple flowers, and L. spicata^ Willd., with its large spike of bright 

 light-purple blossoms. The "Florida vanilla," L. odoratissima, Willd., 

 is just out of blossom. I saw one flower stem, which was over five 

 feet high ; the usual height is about three feet. Several low, wet 

 places were full of L. paniculata^ Willd., and I suppose that a little 

 farther south, L. fruticosa, Nutt., will soon be in bloom. I have never 

 seen it near St. Augustine, but last year while going down to the 

 Halifax river in December, I saw plenty of it just out of bloom. All 

 our species, except the last three, have tuberous roots, and L. fruticosa 



