240 COMPOSITE. Acanthospermum. 



A. mJiriLE, DC. Larger, commonly erect, hirsute: leaves wing-petioled or sessile by a 

 cuueate base: fructiferous bracts somewliat 3-aiigled, uot grooved, armed (besides the 

 prickles) with one or two long spines from the truncate summit. — A. humile & A. hispidum, 

 DC. 1. c. Mclampodium humile, Swartz, Prodr. 114. Centrospermum humile, Less. Syn. 

 217. — Ballast-weed, about Philadelphia and New York; naturalized at Pensacola. (Nat. 

 from W. Ind.) 



70. SiLiPHIUM, L. RosiN-AVEED. (SiAc^iov, ancient name of an Um- 

 belliferous plant in N. Africa which j^rotluced a gum-rcsin, transferred by Lin- 

 naeus, in his accustomed way, to an American genus.) — Tall and coarse perennials 

 (all of Atlantic U. S.) ; with resinous juice, thick roots, commonly large leaves, 

 and ample pedunculate heads of yellow Howers (one species with white rays !), 

 produced in summer and autumn. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 275 ; Benth. & Hook. 

 Gen. ii. 350. 



* Stem square, leafy to tlie top : bases of the leaves or of their winged petioles cupulate-connate. 

 S. perfoliatum, L. (Cup-plant.) Stem 4 to 8 feet high, commonly very smooth and 

 glabrous : leaves either smooth or scabrous, sometimes hirsute-pubescent beneath, ovate or 

 the upper ovate-lanceolate (the larger a foot or more long), dentate or denticulate with 

 mucronate teeth ; upper ones united by their broad bases and lower by winged petioles 

 into a perfoliate cup : heads terminating the loosely cymosely disposed flowering branches, 

 on naked peduncles : involucre short-campanulate, half or two-thirds inch high ; outer bracts 

 ovate, from erect to somewhat squarrose-spreading : rays inch long: akenes either with deep 

 or shallow notch, the narrow wings being produced either into very small obsolete or prom- 

 inent triangular teeth. — Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1301 ; Gouan, Hort. Mousp. 462; Hook. Bot. Mag. 

 t. .3.354 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. S. connatiim, L. Mant. 574, a form with branches somewhat 

 hisi)id. 6\ tetragonum & S. scabrum, Moench, Meth. 606. S. conjunctum, Willd. Enum. 

 633. S. Hornemanni, Schrad. Hort. Goett. ; DC. Prodr. v. 514. S. erj/throcaulon, Bernh. in 

 Spreng. Syst. iii. 630. — Alluvial soil, Michigan and Wisconsin to Upper Georgia and 

 Louisiana. Common in cultivation ; variable but characteristic. 

 -•^f * Stem from obtusely quadrangular to terete, leafy : leaves all or some of them opposite, entire 



or serrate, not connate-perlbliate, 

 4- All but the lower sessile, and either all opposite or the upper pairs occasionally disjoined: 

 akenes M'ith a broad wing and a deep narrow notch: stems 2 to 4 feet high, rigid, very leafy 

 to the top. 

 S. integrifolium, Micnx. Stem smooth or scabrous, sometimes rough-hispidulous : leaves 

 entire or denticulate, lanceolate-ovate or ovate-lanceolate ; all the upper ones closely sessile 

 by a broad and roundish or subcordate partly clasping base, and tapering from below the 

 middle to an acute apex, scabrous above, from nearly glabrous and smooth to cinereous- 

 pubescent beneath, 3 to 5 inches long, commonly of firm texture : heads somewhat corym- 

 bose, nearly all short-peduncled : involucre over half-inch high ; its bracts mostly ovate and 

 spreading : akenes broadly obovate, the body 4 lines long, the scarious wing a line or so wide, at 

 least toward the summit. — Fl. ii. 146; Torr. & Gray, PI. ii. 279, hardly of Ell. S.lcevi- 

 gatum, Pursh, as to char. S. spcciosuyn, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 341, a very smooth 

 form, the var. lave, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. — Prairies, &c., Wisconsin and Illinois to Arkansas 

 and Texas, and possibly to W. Georgia. 

 S. asperrimura, Hook. Commonly taller: stem rough-hispid: leaves of the preceding 

 but more scabrous : heads generally larger : akenes with broader wings, the triangular 

 apical portions 2 or 3 lines high. — Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 99. S. radida, Nutt. Trans. Am. 

 Phil. Soc. 1. c. S. scaberrimum, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 279, var. y, hardly Ell. — Plains of 

 Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas. 

 S. scaberrimum, Ell. Stem and commonly both sides of the leaves hispid : leaves in 

 remoter pairs, tliinncr, oblong or ovate, all but the uppermost rather coarsely serrate and 

 with narrowed or even short petiole-like base (the larger 4 to 6 inches long) : heads fewer, 

 more pedunculate: rays inch long: outermost involucral bracts smaller: akenes including 

 broad wing nearly orbicidar in outline, half-inch in diameter. — Sk. ii. 462 ; Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. ii. 279, e.Kcl. var. y. — W. Georgia to Louisiana and E. Texas. 



