318 LXXV. COMPOSITiE. Abte», 



Tower ones long, lanceolate, veined, obtuse, upper short, narrow-linear ; spika 

 dense and thick, long and bracted below ; hds. numerous, cylindrical, sessile, 

 5-flowered ; scales appressed, with acute, scarious and colored squarrose tips, — 

 Prairies, 111. ! to Tex. A stout species, distinguished from L. spicata chiefly by 

 its acute, squarrose scales and lew-flowered heads. Stem 3 — 5f high. Spikes 

 cylindrical, 10 — 20' long. 

 fi. T. & G. (L. brachystacbya. Nutt.) St. and invol. nearly glabrous. 



Section 3. Heads radiate. 



8. TUSSILAGO. 



Altered from the Lat. tussis, cough ; considered a good expectorant. 



Heads manj-flowered ; flowers of the ray 9> those of the disk c?; 

 involucre simple ; receptacle naked ; pappus capillary. — % Lvs. radi- 

 cal. Fls. yellow^ with very narrow rays. 



T. Farfara. CoWs-font. 



A low plant, in wet places, brook sides, N. and Mid. States, and is a cer- 

 tain indication of a clayey soil. Scape scaly, about 5' high, simple, appearing 

 with its single, terminal, many-rayed, yellow head, in March and April, long 

 before a leaf is to be seen. Leaves arising after the flowers are withered, 5 — 8' 

 by 3 — 6', cordate, angular, dentate, dark green above, covered with a cotton- 

 like down beneath, and on downy petioles, {y 1 



9. NARDOSMIA. Cass. 

 Gr. vapoo;, spikenard, oaftri, smell; from the fragrance of the flowera. 



Heads many-flowered, somewhat 9 c?; flowers of the ray 9. of the 

 disk ? , but abortive in the sterile plant ; involucre simple ; recep- 

 tacle flat, nakedjj pappus capillary. — '^1- Lvs. radical. Fls. cyanic. 

 The ray Jlowers of tJie sterile heads are in a single row ; of the fertile 

 heads i?i several, but very narroic. 



N. PALMATA. Hook. (Tussilago. Ait.} 



Scape with a fastigiate thyrse or corymb ; lvs. roundish-cordate, 5 — 7-lobed, 

 tomentose beneath, the lobes coarsely dentate. — In swamps, Fairhaven, Vt., 

 Robbins. Sunderland, Mass., Hitchcock. W. to R. Mts. Very rare. A coarse, 

 acaulescent plant, with large, deeply and palmately-lobed leaves, and a stout 

 Bcape covered with leaf-scales and 1 — 2f high. The heads are fragrant, nume- 

 rous, with obscure rays, those of the barren plants almost inconspicuous. May. 



Tribe 3. ASTEROIDEJ3. 



Heads radiate, rarely discoid. Branches of the style more or less flattened and 



linear, equally pubescent above outside. Leaves mostly alternate. 



Section 1. Heads radiate. Rays cyanic. 



10. ASTER. 

 Gr. aa-rrjp, a star; from tlie radiated flowers. 



Involucre oblong, imbricate ; scales loose, often with green tips, 

 the outer spreading ; disk flowers tubular, Q ; ray flowers 9 1 in one 

 row, generally few (6 — 100), ligulate, oblong, o-toothed at apex, 

 finally revolute ; receptacle flat, alveolate ; pappus simple, capillary, 

 scabrous ; achenium usually compressed. — A large genus of % herbs, 

 very abundant in the ZJ. S.,Jloicering in late sujnmer and axUumn. Lvs. 

 alternate. Disk fls. yellow.^ changing to purple., ray floicers blue, purple 

 or white., nexer yellow. 



§ Scales imbricate^ with appressed., greenish tips. Rays 6 — 15. Lower 

 leaves cordate, petiolate. Heads corymbose. Biotia. DC. 



1. A. coRYMBosus. Ait. (Eurybia coiymbosa. Cass.) Corymbcd Aster. 



St. corymbose-fastigiate, smooth ; branches hairy ; lvs. ovate, acutely ser 



