56 • COMPOSITE. 



squamella?, -wliicli arc shorter than and concealed by the bristly hairs of tlie akene. Low 

 amiual. 



42. BOLTONIA. Involncre imbricated, appressed ; the outer bracts shorter. Style-append- 

 ages short-lanceolate. Akeues obovate, very tiat, with callous or winged margin, glabrous 

 or minutely and sparsely hisijidulous. Pappus of several short-setulose squamell«; and usu- 

 ally of 2 (rarely 3 or 4) elongated rigid awns. Leafy -stemmed perennials. 



* * * * Pappus a single series of long awns (or only 2 or 3) or of coarse and rigid bristles, 

 or in the (fertile and conspicuous) ray reduced to squamellce or palece : receptacle flat. 



43. TOWNSENDIA. Involucre broad, many-flowered, imbricated ; the bracts lanceolate, 

 with scarions margins and tips, outer usually shorter and inner more membranaceous. Re- 

 ceptacle In-oad, merely areolate. Style-appendages lanceolate. Akenes obovate or oblong, 

 much compressed, and with thickish or mostly callous margins, tliose of the ray sometimes 

 triangular. Awns or bristles of the pappus from hispidulo-scabrous to barbellulate. 

 ***** Pappus of numerous capillary bristles, at least in the disk, with or without a 



short setiilose or squamellate outer series : receptacle flat or barely convex : akenes mostly 

 compressed. 

 H— Style-appendages of disk-flowers comose-bearded : anthers tipped with slender-subulate 

 appendages, as in Lessingiu : rays neutral. 



44. CORETHROGYNE. Involucre broad, imbricated ; its bracts with herltaceous or 

 green tips. Receptacle foveolate, rarely with a few cliaffy bracts toward tlie margin. Style- 

 appendages short-lanceolate, dorsally beset with long hispid hairs forming a bearded tuft. 

 Akenes of the ray abortive and with redixced scanty pappus or none ; those of tlie disk 

 narrow, silky-viUous or pubescent, few-nerved ; their pappus of rather rigid and unequal 

 capillary bristles. 



-i— -i— Style-appendages merely hispidnlous or puberulous, not comose. 

 ++ Pappus none or a mere vestige in the ray-flowers : these often sterile but styliferous. 



45. P3IL ACTIS. Involucre hemispherical ; its bracts imbricated in 2 or 3 series, and with 

 herljaceous tips, or the outer herbaceous. Ravs in a single series, sometimes short. Akenes 

 pubescent, narrow; those of the ray sometimes with an obscure ring in place of pappus; 

 those of the disk bearing a single series of soft capillary bristles. Leafy-stemmed annuals. 

 ++ ++ Pappus present and mostly similar in ray and disk: flowers (with rare exceptions) 



all fertile. Genera of ditficult limitation. 



46. EREMIASTRUM. Involucre broad, many-flowered, of numerous lax and linear 

 bracts, all as long as the disk and nearly in a single series, herbaceous, with hyaline-scarious 

 and erose-fimbriate margins, their back setose-hispid. Receptacle broad and flat. Rays 

 numerous in a single series ; ligules broad, their base and tube villous-barbate. Style-ap- 

 pendages lanceolate. Akenes obovate-oblong, compressed, 2-nerved. Pappus of rather few 

 very unequal and somewhat rigid bristles ; the stronger ones considerably shorter than the 

 disk-corolla and only 8 to 12 ; the smallest and outermost setulose and scarcely longer than 

 the hirsute piibescence of the akene, sometimes coalescent irregularly at base ; intermediate 

 ones of various length and more numerous. Depressed winter-annual. 



47. SERICOCARPUS. Involucre several-flowered, narrow, of closely imbricated and 

 apprcssed wlutisli and coriaceous or cartilaginous bracts, with green-herbaceous abrupt and 

 looser or spreading tips. Receptacle small, foveolate. Corollas both of ra}' and disk white 

 or cream-color ; the rays seldom over 5 or 6, rather l)road ; disk-corollas (8 to 20) with 5-cleft 

 limb. Style-appendages lanceolate-subulate. Akenes narrow, little compressed, 2-nerved, 

 sericeous-pubescent. Pappus of numerous unequal scaln-ons bristles. Leafy-stemmed 

 perennials. 



48. ASTER. Involucre from hemispherical to campanulate, sometimes oblong or tur1)inate, 

 imbricated in several or few series of unequal bracts, mo.stly in part herbaceous. Rays 

 numerous, not very narrow. Style-appendages from slender-subulate to ovate-acute, com- 

 monly lanceolate. Akenes mostly compres.sed, 10-4-2-nerved, and the pajjpus mostly simple 

 and copious, rarely distinctly double. Leafy-stemmed herbs, the greater part perennials. 



49. ERIGERON. Differs from Aster in the more naked-pedunculate heads, simjder in- 

 volucre of narrow and erect ecpial bracts, whicli are never coriaceous, nor foliacoous or with 

 distinct herbaceous tips, narrower and usually very numerous rays often occupying more 



