240 
COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 
the upper rhomboid or wedge-form, toothed. — Rich copses, from W. 
New York and New Jersey southward and westward. Aug. 
4. C. tuberosa, Nutt. (Tuberous Indian Plantain.) Stem 
angled and grooved, from a tuberous root; leaves green both sides , 
thickish, strongly 5-7 -nerved; the lower lanceolate-ovate or oval , 
rather blunt, nearly entire, tapering into long petioles; the upper on 
short margined petioles, sometimes toothed at the apex. — Wet prai¬ 
ries, &c., Ohio to Wisconsin. June. 
51, SENE CIO, L. Groundsel. 
Heads many-flowered, discoid, with the flowers all perfect and 
tubular, or mostly radiate, the rays pistillate. Scales of the invo¬ 
lucre in a single row, or with a few bractlets at the base. Recep¬ 
tacle flat. Pappus of numerous very soft and slender capillary 
bristles. Herbs, or in the tropics shrubs (probably the largest 
phaenogamous genus in the world), with alternate leaves and soli¬ 
tary or corymbed heads. Flowers chiefly yellow. (Name from 
senex, an old man, alluding to the hoary hairs which cover many 
species, or to the white hairs of the pappus.) 
* Rays none: annual. 
1* Vulgaris, L. (Common European Groundsel.) Near¬ 
ly smooth, or at first woolly ; leaves pinnatifid and toothed, clasping, 
the lowest petioled; heads loosely corymbed, nodding. — Waste 
grounds, E. New England and New York : introduced. — A homely 
weed, 6' -12' high. 
^ * K (ll J s present: perennial: heads corymbed. 
S* .inrolls, L. (Golden Ragwort. Squaw-weed.) Smooth , 
or floccost-wooUy when young ; root-leaves simple and rounded , the 
larger mostly heart-shaped, crenate-toothed, long-petioled ; the facer 
stem-leaves lyre-shaped , upper ones lanceolate, cut-pinnatifid, sessile 
or partly clasping; corymb umbel-like; rays 8- 12. — Varies greatly, 
the leading forms being, —V ar . 1. obovAtus, with the root-leaves 
round-obovate (growing in drier places). —Var. 2. Balsamitje, with 
the root-leaves oblong, spatulate, or lanceolate, sometimes cut-toothed, 
tapering into the petiole. Rocky places. — Var. 3. lanceolAtus, 
Oakes, with the leaves all lanceolate-oblong, thin, sharply and une- 
qua y toothed, either wedge-shaped or somewhat heart-shaped at the 
base, the upper merely pinnatifid-cut towards the base. (Cedar 
swamps, Vermont, Robbijis.) —Common everywhere; the primary 
form in swamps. May, June. —Plant 10'-30' high. 
3 »• tomentosus, Michx. (Woolly Ragwort.) Clothed 
WUh scarcely deciduous hoary wool; root-leaves oblong , obtuse, crenate- 
