276 COMPGSlTiE. Helianthus. 



H. mollis, Lam. Canescent throughout : stems 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, when young 

 villous, in age ofteu hirsute or liisj)id, simple and with solitary or few rather large heads, or 

 branched above aud more florifcrous : leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate with a cordate closely 

 sessile or a clasping base, attenuate-acute or acuminate, 3 to 5 inches long, whitened with a 

 soft pubescence, or the upper face becoming greener and scabrous : involucre two-thirds inch 

 high, villous or sericeous: rays 15 to 25, an incli or more long. — Diet. iii. 85 (1789) ; 13C. 

 Prodr. V. 587 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c, not Willd., &c. II. canescens, Michx. Fl. ii. 140. 

 N. pubescens, Vahl, Symb. ii. 92 (1791); "Willd. Spec. iii. 2240; Ell. Sk. ii. 418; Hook. 

 Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 98. — Dry barrens, Ohio to Iowa and south to W. Georgia and Texas. 

 Well-marked species, but passes into a greener or less pubescent and somewhat scabrous 

 variety. 



•I— -J— Soft-villous ratlier tlian tomentose (varying to merely pubescent) as to the lower face of 

 the mosth' alternate ample leaves, but the tall stem villous hirsute or even hispid: heads rather 

 large : involucre loose and long: disk grav-ish: the corolla-lobes as well as the tips of the chaff 

 externally liirsute! 



H. tomentosus, Micnx. Stems stout, 4 to 9 feet high, branching: leaves thinnish, ample 

 (the larger cauline a foot long), from ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at b(jth ends, 

 mostly somewhat petioled, sparingly serrate, upper face scabrous : heads nearly inch high 

 and broad: bracts of the involucre linear-lanceolate and long-attenuate into almost filiform 

 tips, externally hirsute, especially the margins, squarrose-spreading, often much surpassing 

 the disk, outermost sometimes large and foliaccous : rays pale yellow, an inch or more long. 

 — Fl. ii. 141 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 424 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. //. pubescens, Bot. Reg. t. 524, but not that 

 of Ilort. Kew., &c. //. .'irjunn-osus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 3()7. //. spathulatus. 

 Ell. Sk. ii. 421, a form with mo.stly opposite leaves and less prolonged involucral bracts. — 

 Moist woods, Illinois '. and Virginia to Georgia and Alabama, most common along the 

 mountains, in the lower country with leaves less pubescent beneath. 



-f— -i^ -f— Leaves mostly scabrous both sides (in one .sometimes soft tomcntose-cancsccnt beneath), 

 the upper disposed to be alternate and not triplinerved, mostly petiolate aud not broad: heads 

 middle-sized. 



++ Atlantic species : involucre loose or squarrose; its bracts linear-subulate or gradually attenuate 

 from a narrowish base to a slender point, all nearly of tlie same length, equalling or surpassing 

 the dull v'ellow disk: all producing slender creeping rootstocks and also forming one or more 

 fleshy thickened roots (like tap-roots) at base of stem. 



H. grosse-serratus, Martens. Stem very smooth and glabrous, commonly glaucous, 6 to 

 10 feet high, bearing numerous rather cymosely disposed and short-peduncled heads : leaves 

 (not rarely some even of the uppermost opposite) slender-petioled, thinnish, oblong-lanceolate 

 or narrower, or some of the cauline almost deltoid-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, sharply 

 serrate (sometimes with long salient teeth), or upper merely denticulate, slightly scabrous 

 above, whitish and minutely tomentulose or soft-puberulent beneath; larger cauline com- 

 monly 8 to 10 inches and the petiole an inch or two long: heads fully half-inch high, and 

 deep yellow oblong rays over an iuch long : bracts of the involucre mostly slender. — Sel. 

 Sem. Ilort. Lovan., & Linn. xiv. Suppl. 133; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 326. — Dry plains and 

 prairies, Ohio to Dakota, Missouri, and Texas. Eastward the smaller-leaved forms seem to 

 pass into II. qiganteiis. 



Var. hypoleilCUS. Leaves almost silvery -canescent with fine and dense soft tomen- 

 tum, the larger with either cuueate or truncate base. — Texas, Driimmorid, Lindheimer, 

 Writjht. (Var. y, Torr. & Gray, in part.) 



TFT . gigantaUS, L. Stem hispidulous or scabrous, or below smooth, 3 to 10 feet high, com- 

 monly one or more of the roots becoming thick and tuber-like ; the larger plants branching 

 above, bearing scattered heads : leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, gi-een and more or 

 less scabrous both sides, tapering to base aud summit, short-petioled or .subsessile, minutely 

 serrate or denticulate, occasionally nearly entire, commonly only 3 to 5 inches long : heads 

 of the preceding or smaller : rays pale yellow, barely inch long. — Spec. ii. 905 ; Ait. Kew. 

 iii. 249; Willd. Spec. iii. 2242; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 325, excl. ;8. H. altissimus, 

 L. Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1278 ; Jacq. Hort. Vind. t. lf)2. H. gigas, Michx. Fl. ii. 141. A low and 

 mainly northern form is II. tnberosns. Parry in Owen Kep. Minnesota Surv. 614, and //. .'!ub- 

 tuberosus, Bourgeau in herb. Hook., " the Indian Potato of the Assiuiboine tribe," the so-called 

 "edible tubers" (which were also long ago noted by Douglas) being tuber-like thickened 



