444 COMPOSITE. Sonchus. 



* * Flowers bluish to vellowisli or whitish: pappus sordid or fuscous : upper cauline leaves sessile 

 by a mostly narrowed but auriculate or partly clasping base ; heads in a p3'raniidal more crowded 

 panicle. — Mulgtdiuni § Ayalnm, DC. 1. c, in part. 



Li. leucoph^a, Gray, 1. c. Stem 3 to 12 feet high, .stout, leafy up to the panicle : leaves 

 ample, sinuately or runcinately pinuatifid, coarsely and irregularly or doubly dentate : iuvo- 

 lucre oblong, 5 lines high . akenes uarrowed at summit into a short but manifest neck. — 

 L. Canadensis flore leucopha'o, Tourn. Sonchus aIplnus,Ti., as to char. (& of Smith, Ic. lued. 

 t. 21), & S. Canadensis, L., as to habitat, owing to transposition by Liunaaus. aS'. spicatus, 

 Lam. Diet. iii. 401, excl. syn. Walt. S. racemosus, Lam. 1. c. 400. S. biennis, Mcench, 

 Meth. ."545. S. leiicoplianis, Willd. Spec. iii. 1520, excl. syn. Walt. S. Floridanus, Ait. Kew. 

 iii. 116, from fruit of which is probably that of Lactnra Floridana, Giertn. t. 158. S. acumi- 

 natus, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 290. -S. pallidas, Torr. Compend. 279. Agathijrsus leucophcens, 

 Beck, Bot. 170. Mtdrjedium leucopha'inn, DC. 1. c, Nutt. 1. c. (§ Lenromela) ; Torr. & Gray, 

 ri. ii. 499. il/. midtifloruni, DC. 1. c. Sonchus multifloras, Desf. Cat. (and so Galathenium 

 vudtiflornm, Nutt. 1. c.) is, from" sessile cauline leaves, probably this species. — Moist grouuds 

 and border of woods, Newfoundland to Canada, Iowa, mountains of Carolina and Tennessee, 

 and northwestward to coast of Oregon and Brit. Columbia. 



Var. integrifolia. Leaves undivided (simulating those of L. acuminata, but sessile), 

 or the lower sinuate-i)innatifiil. — Mulgedium leucojihreum, var. integrijhliu, Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. — Ohio, Lea. Canton, Illinois, Wol/. 



L. MACROPHTLLA, Souchus mcicrophijllus, Willd., is not known in this country, and is doubt- 

 less an Old World species. 



L. AL>i\A, Sonchus alpimis, L., is not American. For an account of the early confusion 

 between tiiis and L. leucophica, see the latter species, supra, and Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 500. 



235. SONCHUS, Tourn. Sow-Thistle. (The ancient Greek name.) 

 — Herbs of the Old World, some species now widely diffused, the following natu- 

 ralized in N. America. Stems leafy : leaves somewhat spinulosely or ciliately 

 dentate : flowers yellow, in summer : jjappus white. 



* Coarse annual weeds, of cultivated soil and around dwellings; with mostly runcinately or 

 lyrately pinuatifid leaves, of tender texture, beset with soft spinulose serratures; upper cauline 

 auriculate-clasping, and lobes ovate or oblong: heads about half-inch higii, somewhat con^m- 

 bose-paniculate, on short peduncles; these sometimes setose-glaiidular: akenes flat, thin-edged, 

 oblong-obovate. 



S. olerAceus, L. Leaves with soft or hardly spinulose teeth ; auricles of the cauline ones 

 acute : akenes striate-uerved and transversely rugulose-scabrous. — Common iu yards and 

 gardens. (Nat. from Eu.) 



S. ASPER, ViLL. Teeth of the leaves longer and more prickly; auricles of the clasping 

 base rounded : akenes smooth, 3-uerved on each side, margined. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 501, 

 with syn. S. Carolinianus, Walt. Car. 192; Ell. Sk. ii. 255. S. spinuhsus, Bigel. Fl. 

 Bost. ed. 2, 292. — More common westward and southward, widely dispersed, even to 

 remote districts. 



* * Slender annual; wi h leaves pinnatcly parted into narrow lobes. 



S. TENERRiMus, L. A foot or tw'o high, with rather few and scattered pedunculate heads, 

 glal)rous : lobes of the leaves mostly linear or narrow-ly lanceolate, somewhat s])inuloseIy 

 denticulate : akenes narrow, thickish, rugose-scabrous. — S. tenuifolius, Nutt. Trans. Am. 

 Phil. Soc. vii. 438. — San Diego, California, Nultall, Orcuft. (Nat. from Eu.) 



* * * Strong-rooted perennial, with deep yellow flowers : akenes thickish. 

 S. ARVExsis, L. Eootstocks creeping : stems 2 feet high, naked at summit, bearing few or 

 several and corymbosely paniculate showy heads . leaves ruuciuate-pinnatifid or some undi- 

 vided, denticulate-spinulose, cauline partly clasping at base : peduncles and involucre more 

 or less glandular-bristly: head almost inch high : akenes oblong, about 10-costate, rugulose 

 on the ribs. — On shores and banks of streams, iu several places iu N. Atlantic States, and 

 Salt Lake City, Utah. (Nat. from Eu.) 



