110 COMPOSITE. Liatris. 



ii. 275; Torr. & Gray, 1. c, not Piirsh. L. graminifoUa, Willd. Spec. iii. 1636, excl. syn. 

 Walt. & hab. ; Muhl. Cat. 73. L. stricta, Macuab in Edinb. Phil. Jour. xix. 60. L. Jiexuosa, 

 D. Thomas, in Am. Jour. Sci. xxvii. 338 1 — Dry prairies and open woodlands. Upper Canada 

 and Michigan to Minnesota and Missouri. 



* * # Pappus disthu-tly plumoi5e to the naked eye: heads 3-6-flowered : bracts of the involucre 

 acuminate or nuicronate, coriaceo-herbaceous, not appendaged: corolla-lobes naked: leaves all 

 narrowly linear or the upper acerose. 



L. punctata, Hook. Stems a .span to 30 inches high from a thick and branching or some- 

 times globular stock, stout: leaves as well as bracts commonly punctate, rigid : head 4-6- 

 flowered, oblong or cylindraceous, thickish, from half to three-fourths inch long, mostly 

 numerous and crowded in a dense (below leafy) spike: bracts of the involucre oblong, 

 abruptly or sometimes more gradually cuspidate-acuminate, often lanuginous-ciliate : pappus 

 almost as plumose as in the preceding. — FI. i. 306, t. 55; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. L. cijUndnca, 

 Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. ii. 210. L. resinosa, DC. Prodr. v. 129 (pi. Arkans.), not Nutt. — 

 Dry prairies and plains, Saskatchewan and Minnesota west to Montana and Colorado, south 

 to Texas and New Mexico. (Mex.) 



L. acidota, Engelm. & Gray. Stem a foot or two high from a globose or at length elon 

 gated tuber : leaves very slender : heads 3-5-flowered,. three-fourths to half an inch long, 

 numerous in a slender and strict naked spike : bracts of the involucre rather few, thinuish 

 mostly glabrous, ovate- and oblong-lanceolate, gradually or abruptly acuminate or cuspidate 

 mucronate : pappus sliort-plumose. — PI. Lindh. i. 10; Gray, PI. Wright, i. 83. L. mncronata 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 70, not DC. — Prairies of Texas, Drummond, Writjht, Lindhcimer, &c 

 Var. veriKilis, Engelm. & Gray, 1. c, is a depauperate vernal form. 



Var. mucronata. Heads and flowers smaller; involucral bracts abruptly mu- 

 cronato-pointed. — L. mucronata, Engelm. & Gray, PL Lindh. i. 10. — Texas, Lindh&imer. 



L. Boykini, Torr. & Gray. Glabrous : stem very slendei", a foot or two high : leaves 

 punctate ; lower narrowly linear, upper acerose : heads rather numerous in a strict naked 

 spike, 3-4-flowered, hardly half-inch long : bracts of the involucre only about 8, thin, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, the inner somewhat scarious at margins and tip : pappus short-plu- 

 mose. — Fl. ii. 70. — Near Columbus, Georgia, Boylcin. Not since found. 



* * * * Pappus from barbellulate to minuteh' short-plumose under a lens, not to the naked eye. 



•1— Heads subglobose or hemispherical, 1.5-40-flowered : involucral bracts mostly spatulate, many- 

 ranked, somewhat spreading : corolla-lobes comparatively short. 



L. SCariosa, Willd. Pubescent or glabrate : stem stout, 1 to 5 feet high : leaves spatulate- 

 or oljlong-lixnceolate and tapering into a petiole (4 to 6 inches long, half-inch to inch and a 

 half wide) ; upper narrowly lanceolate ■ uppermost small, linear, sessile : heads racemose or 

 spicate, few or numerous (3 to 50), mostly 25-40-flowere(l and about an inch high and wide : 

 involucral bracts broadest and rounded at summit, there either herbaceous or scarious edged 

 and tinged with purple (rarely white-scarious) : pappus-bristles minutely barbellate. — 

 Willd. Spec iii. 1635 ; Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1709; Ker, Bot. Reg. t. 590; Lindl. Bot. Reg. 

 t. 1654; Meehan, Nat. Flowers, ser. 2, ii. t. 29. L. aspera & sphneroidea, Michx. Fl. ii. 92. 

 L. srariosd & L. sphieroiden, DC. 1. c. L. sphwroldea, Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 87. L. borealis, 

 Nutt. in Paxt. Mag. v. t. 27. L. squanosa, Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 44 ? Serratida scariosa, 

 L. Spec. ii. 818. — Dry and usually sandy ground, Upper Canada and New England to the 

 Saskatchewan, west to the Rocky Mountains, south to Florida and Texas. Varies greatly ; 

 in the involucre, which is either herbaceous or with the tips largely scarious and colored ; in 

 the size of the heads, &c., passing into the extreme microcephalous form (which except for 

 the transitions would be regarded as a distinct species), viz. : — 



Var. squarrulosa. Comparatively small and slender : heads merely half or two- 

 thirds inch long, 14-20-flowered : involucral scales narrower, innermost sometimes linear or 

 lanceolate and acutish. — L. sqnavrtdosa, Michx. 1. c. L. Iieteroplii/lln, R. Br. in Ait. Kew. 

 ed. 2, iv. 503; Pursh, Fl. ii. 508; Nutt. Gen. ii. 131. — Open woods, N. Carolina to Texas. 

 The heads of ordinary L. scariosa, when abnormally numerous and paniculate, are some- 

 times reduced to the smallest size. 

 -I— H— Heads oblong, 5-flowered: involucre squarrose by the spreading colored tips of the bracts. 



Li pycnostachya, Michx. Hirsute, or below glabrous : stem stout, 3 to 5 feet high : 

 leaves crowded throughout ; the lower lanceolate and the upper very narrowly linear : spike 



