COMPOSITJE. 187 NARDOSMIA. 



2. S. IIYSSOPIFO LIA. — Leaves oblong-ovate, entire; corj/mis spread- 

 ing ; pappus awned, as long as the corolla. Plant 1 — 2 feet high. Corollas 

 pink-colored. A pretty garden flower. Aug. Sept. Hyssop-Leaved Stevia. 



S. purpurea has lanceolate leaves, purple flowers in a level topped corymb. 



S. pedata, an annual species, with entire digitate-pedate leaves and white 

 flowers. 



Section II. Heads radiate. 



7. TUSSl'LAGO. 



Heads manj-flowered, radiate; flowers of the margin 

 pistillate, those of the disk staminate; involucre simple; 

 receptacle naked; pappus capillary. 



Lat. tussis, a cough, and ago, to manage; the flowers have been much 

 employed for curing a cough. A perennial herb. Lvs. radical. Fls. yellow. 

 Rays very narrow. 



1. T. Fa'rfara. 



Scape single-flowered, scaly; leaves cordate, angular, dentate, downy 

 beneath. A low plant with large radical leaves, in wet places, brook-sides, 

 and is a certain indication of a clayey soil. The flowers appear in March and 

 April, long before a leaf is to be seen. They are yellow, with many rays, on 

 leafless, simple, biacted stalks about 5 inches high. The leaves, which come 

 forth after the flowers are withered, are broadly heart-shaped, about 5 inciies 

 broad and 7 long, dark green above, covered with a cottony down beneath 

 and on downy stalks. " The cotton of the leaves wrapped in a rag dipped in 

 a solution of saltpetre and dried in the sun makes excellent tinder." The 

 plant is sometimes used in medicine as an expectorant. Colt's-foot. 



8. NARDO'SMIA. 



Heads many-flowered, radiate, somewhat dicecious ; flowers 

 of the margin pistillate, disk perfect, but abortive in the sterile 

 plants, involucre simple; receptacle flat, naked; pappus 

 capillary. 



Gr. va-p^oi, spikenard, ocTfArj, smell; from the fragrance of the flowers. — 

 Perennial herbs, with radical leaves. Fls. cyanic. The ray flowers of the 

 sterile plants are in a single series, of the fertile, in several, but very narrow, 



2. N. PALMA'TA. Hook. Tussilago palmata. j?«<. 



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

 lobed, tomentose beneath, the lobes coarsely dentate. In swamps. A coarse, 

 stemless plant with large deeply and palmately-lobed leaves and a stout scape 

 covered with leaf-scales and 1 — 2 feet high. 'J'he heads are fragrant, numer- 

 ous, with obscure rays, those of the heads of the barren plants almost 

 inconspicuous. May. Palmalelij-leaved Colt's-foot. 



Tribe III. ASTEROIDEtE. 



Keads radiate, rarely discoid. Branches of the style more or less flattened and linear, equally 

 pxtbescent above outside. Leaves jnostly alternate. 



Section I. Heads radiate» Kaj^s cyanic. 



