90 COMPOSITiE. Vernonia. 



Fl. 187, extreme form, mostly with muticous involucral bracts. — In shady places, Penn. and 

 Ohio to Florida. 



V. Baldwinii, Torr. Tomentulose, 2 to 5 feet high : leaves oblong- or ovate-lanceolate : 

 involucre (a quarter-inch high) when young globose, hoary-tomentose, greenish, squarrose 

 by the spreading or recurved acute or acuminate tips of its bracts. — Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 211 ; 

 Torr. & Gray, 1. c. T'. spJueroidea, Nutt. in Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. — Prairies and barren 

 hills, E. Missouri to Texas ; flowering early, in July and August. Passes into the next. 



V. altissima, Nutt. Nearly glabrous, or sometimes cinereous-pubescent, 5 to 10 feet high : 

 leaves thinnisli, veiny, obscurely if at all puncticulate, lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong : cyme 

 usually loose or open : involucre of wholly appressed obtuse or merely mucronate-acute 

 bracts : ribs of the akenes minutely or sparsely liisjjidulous. — Gen. ii. 134 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 289 ; 

 Less, in Linn. vi. 639, partly. V. pnealta, Michx. 1. c, partly; DC. 1. c, partly. V. fusctcu- 

 Za<rt, var., Torr. & Gray, El. ii. 59 ; Chapm. El. 188. Chrysocoma (jic/aniea, Walt. \. c. Varies 

 much, especially in the size of the heads : the form parriftora, with involucre only 2 or 3 

 lines high and rather pauciseriate, being Nuttall's original. — Low or wet grounds, W. 

 Penn. to Illinois, Louisiana and Florida. 



Var. grandiflora. Less tall : heads larger : involucre mostly 4 lines high ; the bracts 

 35 to 40 and in more numerous ranks. — Nutt. in Herb. Acad. Philad. — Low prairies and 

 along streams, Illinois and Kentucky to Texas. 



= = Akenes smooth and glabrous on the ribs, or nearly so: bracts of the involucre all closely 

 appressed and inappendiculate, coriaceo-chartaceous. 



V. fasciculata, Michx. Glabrous, or the cyme puberulent, 2 to 5 feet high : leaves thick- 

 ish, when dry puncticulate, from linear (and with obscure veins or veinlets) to oblong- 

 lanceolate (and more evidently veined), conspicuously spinulose-denticulate : heads numerous 

 and crowded on the branches of the comjiound cyme : involucre (3 or 4 lines high) 20-30- 

 flowered ; its bracts all obtuse, or some of the uppermost abruptly mucronate-acute. — 

 El. ii. 94 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c, excl. vars. V. corymbosa, Schweinitz, in Keating, Narr. Long 

 Exped. Mississ., the form with broad and short leaves. V. altissima, DC. 1. c. partly, & excl. 

 syn. Dill., &c. — Low grounds, prairies and river-bottoms, Ohio and Kentucky to Dakota 

 and south to Texas. 



-H- ++ Leaves perfectly glabrous and smooth, veinless, commonly entire, narrowly linear, plane: 

 heads narrow, few-flowered. 



V. Lettermani, Exgelm. Habit of tlie preceding, 2 to 4 feet high, fastigiately and 

 cymosely much branched at .summit : leaves 3 or 4 inches long, only a line wide, the margins 

 not revolute : heads numerous, pedunculate, clavate-cylindraceous, 10-14-flowered, half-inch 

 long : bracts of the involucre all appressed and inappendiculate, but acute or acuminate ; 

 outermost ovate-subulate, innermost narrowly lanceolate and purple : ribs of the glandular 

 akenes obscurely scal)rous. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 78. — Arkansas, on Cooper's Creek, 

 Biijchw. Gravelly banks and sand-bars of the Washita, Letterman. 



V. Jamesii, Torr. & Gray. Glabrous or nearly so, a foot or two high : leaves linear- 

 lanceolate or linear, like those of narrowest forms of V. fasciculata, but smaller and less or 

 obsoletely denticulate ; veins and veinlets obscure : heads few or numerous in a loose and 

 open corymbiform cyme, all pedunculate : involucre (4 or 5 lines high) 15-25-flowered, from 

 hemispherical-campanulate to turbinate-oblong ; its bracts all or mostly obtuse, or (in the 

 larger form of involucre) acute or acuminate. — Fl. 1. c; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 82. V. altis- 

 sima, var. manjinata, Torr. xVnn. Lye. N. Y. ii. 210. — Plains of Nebraska and Arkansas to 

 W. Texas and E. New Mexico, first coll. by Dr. James. 

 ++ -H- ++ Leaves with upper face scabrpus and margins often revolute, then entire, not canescent. 



V. angustifolia, Michx. Stem a foot to a yard high, .slender, from roughish-hirsute to 

 nearly glabrous : leaves from narrowly linear or approaching filiform to lanceolate, the 

 broader ones sparsely denticulate and also veiny : cyme loose, simple or compound, sometimes 

 paniculate, sometimes umbelliform, mosth- naked: heads 15-25-riowered : involucre about 

 3 lines high, commonly somewhat turbinate ; its bracts or most of them mucronate, some- 

 times cuspidate-acuminate : akenes minutely hirsute, at least on the ribs. — Fl. ii. 94 ; Ell. 

 Sk. ii. 87 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. V. fasciculata , DC. 1. c, not Michx. C/iri/socoma gramini- 

 folia, Walt. Car. 196. Liatris umhellata, Bertol. Misc. \. t. 4. — Dry pine barrens, N. Caro- 

 lina to Florida, Arkansas, and Texas. 



