Liatris. COMPOSITE. 109 



14. CARPHOCH^TE, Gray. (Kapc^o?, scale or chaff, and xatrri, bristle, 

 from the pappus.) — Pereiniiul herbs or suffrutescent plants (of New and North- 

 ern Mexico), glabrous or nearly so ; with opposite and entire sessile thickish 1-3- 

 nerved but nearly veinless leaves, and solitary or somewhat clustered heads, 

 terminating leafy or pedunculiform branches : the flowers (about an inch long) 

 much exceeding the involucre : this and the corolla rose-colored : nearly of 

 Liatris habit, and pappus somewhat of Stevia. — PL Fendl. Go ; PI. Wright, i. 89, 

 ii. 71. 



C. Bigelovii, Gray, 1. c. A span to a foot high, woody at base, fasciculately branched : 

 lower leaves spatulate-oblong, inch long, and fascicles of smaller ones in the axils, upper 

 oblong or linear : heads sessile or very short-peduncled, mostly terminating very leafy some- 

 what paniculate short brauchlets : aristiform paleaj of the pappus 11 to 14, and a few very 

 small exterior squamellaj. — N. New Mexico, Bigcloiv, Wright, Greene. Arizona, Pringle. 

 S. W. Texas, Girurd. The one or two other species are more herbaceous, slender, and with 

 -loose pedunculate heads. 



15. LIATRIS, Schreb. Blazing Star, Button Snakeroot. (Name 

 of unknown derivation.) — Perennial Atlantic N. American herbs ; with simple 

 virgate very leafy stems from a tuberous or mostly globose and corm-like stock, 

 bearing reversely racemose or spicate heads of handsome rose-purple flowers 

 (rarely also white), in late summer and autumn; the leaves all alternate, narrow, 

 entire, rigid or with cartilaginous margins, mostly glabrous or glabrate. — Gen. 

 542 (where Giertner's name is mentioned ; but Gasrtner takes up the genus, like 

 Schreber, from the A)ionymos, Walt., under the name Suprago, confusing it with 



Vernonia, and in a volume two years later than Schreber's) ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 67 (excl. § 2 & 3) ; Benth. & Hook. Gen. ii. 248. 



* Pappus very plumose: heads 4-5-flowered: inner Involucral bracts with prolonged petaloid tips. 

 — Cnlostelma, Don. 



L. elegans, Willd. Partly pubescent, 2 to 3 feet high: linear upper leaves commonly 

 soon reflexed : spike or raceme virgate, dense, 3 to 20 inches long : heads either sessile or on 

 bracteolate pedicels, about half-inch long: bracts of the involucre few-ranked, the inner 

 dilated at tip into an oblong or lanceolate mucronate-acuminate rose-red spreading append- 

 age, which surpasses the flowers and pappus. — Spec. iii. 1065 ; Michx. Fl. ii. 91 ; Ker, Bot. 

 Reg. t. 267; DC. Prodr. v. 129; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Stwhelina elegans, Walt. Car. 202. 

 Serratula speciosa, Ait. Kew. iii. 138. Enpatorium speciosum, Vent. Cels. t. 79. Liatris 

 radians, Bertol. Misc. v. 9, t. 1. — Dry pine barrens, Virgiuia ? to Florida and Texas. 



* * Pappus verv plumose : heads 16-60-flowered, cylindraceous with turbinate base : bracts of 

 involucre much imbricated, with herbaceous tips if any: lobes of the corolla pilose inside: 

 leaves all linear and rigid, hardly punctate; the lower elongated and graminiform. 



Li. squarrosa, Willd. Pubescent or partly glabrous: stem stout, 6 to 20 inches high: 

 heads few (even solitary), or sometimes numerous in a leafy spike or raceme, rarely some- 

 what paniculate, the larger an inch or more long : bracts of the involucre all herbaceous 

 and acuminate, or with foliaceous or herbaceous (or innermost slightly colored) lanceolate 

 rigid and somewhat pungent tips ; these usually squarrose-spreading and prolonged. — 

 Torr. & Gray, 1. c, inch v^ivs. JJorilmnda & conqmcta. Cirsinm tuberosum, etc., Dill. Elth. t. 71, 

 fig. 82. Serrattda srjaairosa, L. Sjiec. ii. 818. Pteronin Caroliniana, Walt. Car. 292. — Dry 

 gravelly or sandy soil, Upper Canada to Florida, Nebraska, and Texas. Passes into 



Var. intermedia, DC. Heads narrow : bracts of the involucre erect or little spread- 

 ing, less prolonged. — Prodr. v. 129 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c, with var. rompacta. L. intermedia, 

 Lindl. Bot. Reg. t. 948. — Upper Canada to Nebraska, Louisiana, and Texas. 



L. cylindracea, Micux. Mostly glabrous, a foot high : heads few or several, 16-20- 

 flowered, an inch or less long : bracts of the involucre all appressed, barely herbaceous, 

 rounded and abruptly mucronate at tip, the outermost very short. — Fl. ii. 93 ; Ell. Sk. 



