SYNGENESIA. ^(IXTALIS. 133' 



peduncles hirsute, nearly naked, 1 to 5-flowered; flosculi 

 about 20 in the same calix, scales smooth, oblong-oval, 

 obtuse. Ha.b. From North Carolina to Florida; in open 

 swamps, common. L.tomentosa? Mich. Flor. Am. 2. p. 

 93. but it by no means accords with his description or 

 name — Root perennial, fibrous, fibres thick. Stem about 

 2 feet high, terete, more or less hirsute and simple, sum- 

 mit somewhat attenuated, corymbiferous. Leaves nearly 

 smooth, or somewhat pubescent, cauline about an inch 

 long, diminishing upwards. Peduncles partly filiform, 2 

 to 3 inches long. Calix large and hemispherical; scales 

 smooth, about 3 series, membranaceously marginated. 

 Florets pale purple. 



18. helUdifolia. Low and nearly smooth; stems aggrega- 

 ted; radical leaves spathulate-lanceolate, obtuse, 3-nerved 

 cauline sublinear; stem paniculately branched, branches 

 subfastigiate, 1 to 5-flowered; calix smooth and hemisphe- 

 rical, containing about 20 florets, scales oblong, obtuse, 

 the lower ones loose and partly spreading. Hab. Abun- 

 dant on the sand-hills of Wilmington, North Carolina, ^c. 

 —Root tubercular, sending out long and thick, simple 

 fibres. Stems about 12 inches high, many growing up 

 from the same root; branches commencing aboutthe mid- 

 dle, sometimes lower, each about a span' long, but often 

 shorter. Scales of the calix foliaceous. Flowers purple. 

 Pappus in this and the preceding scarcely appearing plu- 

 mose, without being examined through a lens; seed dis- 

 tinctly stipitate at the base, 



A North American genus. The tuberous rooted spe- 

 Cies rank amongst the numerous, real or pretended re- 

 medies administered for the bite of the Rattle-snake To 

 the taste and smell the roots appear impregnated with 

 turpentine, and the species are for this reason called **Pi- 

 nette de Prairie" by the Canadian boatmen. It is also 

 probably from the same cause that L. sbicata proves diu- 

 retic. 



540. VERNONIA. Schreber. 



Calix ovate imbricate. Stigma bifid. Becep^ 

 tacle naked. Pappus double; exterior short 

 and paleaceous, interior capillary. 



Herbaceous or shrubby; leaves simple, frequently sca- 

 brous, serrated or entire on the margin; flowers terminal 

 corymbose, rarely spiked, with the flowers s^cm I, gene- 

 rally purple. (Seed subcylindric, shortly stipitate ai the 

 base, lu-siriate, striatures smooth, or minutely striffose- 



Vol. II. M ^ 5 » 



