318 LXXV. COMPOSITiE. Aster. 



lower ones long, lanceolate, veined, obtuse, upper short, narrow-linear ; spike 

 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 few-flowered heads. Stem 3 — 5f high. Spikes 

 cylindrical, 10 — 20' long. 

 /?. T. & G. (L. brachystachya. Nutt.) St. and invol. nearly glabrous. 



Section /3« Heads radiate* 



8. TUSSILAGO. 

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



Heads many-flowered ; flowers of the ray 9 » those of the disk cT ; 

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

 cal. Fls. yeUow.) with very narrow rays. 



T. Farfara, CoWs-foot. 



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, ^nd on downy petioles. ^ % 



9. NARDOSMIA. Cass. 



Gr. vapSos, spikenard, o(r/<jj, smell; from the fragrance of the flowers. 



Heads many-flowered, somewhat 9 d"; flowers of the ray 9> of the 

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

 tacle flat, naked ; pappus capillary. — % Lvs. radical. Fls. cyanic. 

 The ray flowers of the sterile heads /ire in a single row ; of the fertile 

 heads in several, but very narrow. 



N. PALMATA. Hook. (Tussilago. Ait.) 



Scape with, a fastigiate ih}Tse 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 

 scape 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. ASTEROIDEJE. 



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. aarnp, a star ; from the radiated flowers. 



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

 the outer spreading ; disk flowers tubular, $ ; ray flowers 9 > in one 

 row, generally few (6 — 100), ligulate, oblong, 3-toothed at apex, 

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

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

 very abundant in the V. S., flowering in late summer and autumn. Lvs. 

 alternate. Disk fls. yellow, changing to purple, ray flowers blue, purple 

 or white, never yellow. 



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

 leaves cordate., petiolate. Heads cory7nbose. Biotia. DC. 



1. A. coRYMBosus, Ait, (Eurybia corymbosa. Cass.) Corymbed Aster. 



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



