Verbesina. COMPOSITiE. 287 



disk from flattish to low conical : awns of the pappus not hooked : ours all per- 

 ennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 11. 



* Akenes wholly wingless : receptacle nearlj' flat : flowers j'ellow, the rays 1 to 5, lanceolate : 

 leaves opposite. 



V. OCCidentalis, Walt. Green and minutely pubescent or glabrous, 4 to 7 feet high, with 

 erect narrowly 4-winged branches, leafy up to the short peduncles of the corymbosely panicu- 

 late open cymes : leaves ovate and the upjjermost oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, acutely ser- 

 rate, the larger about 8 inches long, contracted into a margined petiole : involucre oblong, 

 4 or 5 lines high: akenes obovate-oblong, pubescent. — Car. 213. V. Siegesbetfcia, Michx. 

 ri. ii. 134; DC. Prodr. v. 61 G ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 358. Siegesbeckiu occidentalis, L. Spec. 

 ii. 900, & PI. Gronov. T": PImthusa, Cass. Diet. Ii. 476, & lix. 149 ; DC. Prodr. 1. c, but 

 there are no squamella;. Phwthtisa Americana, Gairtn. Fruct. ii. 425, t. 169, f. 3, hairs at 

 summit of akene exaggerated, and awns missing. P. horealis, Spreng. Syst. iii. 591. Core- 

 opsis alata, Pursh, Fl. ii. 567, therefore Acti)wineris alata, Nutt. Gen. 181. — Borders of 

 woods and banks, S. Peun. to Illinois and Florida. 



* * Akenes or most of them broadly winged at maturity, but variable : receptacle convex to con- 

 ical : flowers both of ray and disk white or Avhitish; the anthers blackish : rays 3 to 5, obovate, 

 short: leaves alternate. 



V. Virginica, L. Minutely tomentose-pubescent or puberulent, 3 to 6 feet high : stem or 

 branches winged or wingless : leaves green and glabrate or minutely hispidulous-scabrous 

 above, cinereous to cauescent beneath, ovate or the upper narrower, from denticulate to 

 coarsely serrate, contracted below into a winged petiole : heads small, 3 or 4 lines high, 

 crowded ou the irregular branches of the compound paniculate naked cyme : bracts of the 

 involucre lanceolate, rather obtuse, erect, pubescent : awns of the pappus slender, sometimes 

 obsolete. — Spec. ii. 901 ; Walt. 1. c. ; Michx. 1. c. ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 359. V. pa- 

 nicidata, Poir. Diet. viii. 456. V. microptera, DC. 1. c. ; akenes sometimes but not always 

 imperfectly winged. V. polycephala, DC. 1. c, rather robust form. V. villosa, Nutt. Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 370, a tomentose form. V. Texana, Buckley in Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 

 458. — Rich dry soil, Penn. ? and Illiuois to Florida and Texas. (Mex.) 



Var. laciniata. Leaves variously and irregular sinuate- or laciniate-lobed, rarely 

 almost to the midrib ; the principal lobes 3 to 5. — Sietjeshcckia laciniata, Poir. Diet. vii. 158. 

 Verbesina laciniata, Nutt. Geu. ii. 170. V. sinuata. Ell. Sk. ii. 411 ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 

 I.e. — Along the coast, S. Carolina to Florida. 



§ 2. Pterophyton. Heads (solitary or scattered) comparatively broad : in- 

 volucre more or less imbricated, all or at least the inner bracts erect or appressed : 

 disk convex to oval and the akenes all erect in fruit ; the receptacle from convex 

 to conical : rays several to numerous, either neutral or styliferous (even in the 

 same species), but almost always infertile : akenes flat : awns of the pappus not 

 hooked, often obsolete or wanting : perennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xix. 12. Part of Pterophyton, Cass., & of Actinomeris, Nutt. 



* Stems wholly wingless and marginless: leaves long and linear, not decurrent: bracts of the in- 

 volucre narrow, the outer loose and disposed to become foliaceous. 



V. longifolia, Gray. Stems slender, smooth and glabrous, 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, 

 branching at summit and bearing several heads : leaves alternate or some 2-3-nate, sessile, 

 scabrous, reticulate-veiny and with prominent midrib, 4 to 9 inches long, quarter to half inch 

 wide : head hemispherical, half-inch high, with flattish disk, often subtended by one or two 

 linear leaf-like bracts: involucral bracts linear: rays about 15, neutral, inch long: akenes 

 obovate, smooth, with narrow wing, a shallow notch, and no awns or rarely a rudimentary 

 one. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 12. Actinomeris longifolia. Gray, PL Wright, ii. 89. — Mountains 

 of S. Arizona, Wright, Rothrock, &c. 



* * Stems wholly wingless: leaves ovate to oblong, sessile, not decurrent, mostly opposite: 

 bracts of the involucre broader and closer: rays not rarely styliferous. 



V. W^rightii, Gray, 1. c. Scabrous and mostly hispidulous : stems stout, 1 to 3 feet high, 

 somewhat branching, bearing few or solitary long-pedubculate showy heads : leaves from 



