A. DRACUNCULUS. 115 



represented in the Northwest nor in eastern Asia. As contrasted with these, filifolia and 

 pedatifida are restricted to America. The latter shows the greatest amount of modifica- 

 tion and possibly was derived directly from the former. Both exhibit specialization in 

 their shrubby habit and in the reduction of the number of flowers. Perhaps it is because 

 of these special adaptations that they are of comparatively limited distribution. 



20. ARTEMISIA DRACUNCULUS Linnaeus, Sp. PI. 849, 1753. Plate 13. Dragon 



Sagewort. 



A perennial herb with a thick, sometimes nearly woody rootstock, 5 to 15 dm. high, 

 varying from strongly odorous to inodorous; stems not crowded, simple up to the inflor- 

 escence, erect, striate, either pilose and glabrate or usually glabrous, commonly tinged 

 with red ; basal and lower leaves crowded when young but not forming tufts, sessile by a 

 narrow base, linear to oblong or somewhat lanceolate, acute, 3 to 8 cm. long, 1 to 6 or 

 10 mm. wide, mostly entire, occasionally some 1- to 3-cleft, or the lowest even more 

 divided, usually glabrous but silky-canescent and glabrate in some forms; upper leaves 

 only slightly reduced, entire, glabrous or pubescent; inflorescence a leafy-bracted panicle 

 with ascending branches, 15 to 40 cm. long, 3 to 12 cm. broad; heads heterogamous, ses- 

 sile or peduncled, nodding; involucre hemispheric, 2 to 2.5 mm. high, 2 to 4 mm. broad; 

 bracts 8 to 15, elliptic or lanceolate, mostly obtuse, the outer from one-half to nearly 

 as long as the inner, glabrous or sparingly pubescent, yellowish green save for the white- 

 scarious margins; receptacle naked; ray-flowers 6 to 30, fertile, corolla 0.5 to 1 mm. long, 

 cleft on one side, glabrous; disk-flowers 10 to 30, sterile, corolla campanulate, 1.5 to 2 

 mm. long, 5-toothed, glabrous; style of disk-flowers 1 to 1.8 mm. long, the branches erect 

 or slightly spreading, penicillate at apex, or probably the branches sometimes com- 

 pletely united; achenes ellipsoid, not ribbed, glabrous, those of the disk-flowers abortive. 



On the plains and in the mountains, often common, Manitoba to Illinois, Texas, Chi- 

 huahua, Arizona, Lower California, and British Columbia, also in central Asia and Siberia 

 and less common in middle Europe. 



SUBSPECIES. 

 Since this is one of the most polymorphous of the Artemisias, an extensive series of 

 forms might be worked out. The following key provides for the only important segre- 

 gates thus far described from North America. Intermediate forms are so common and 

 the characters unite in so many combinations that it is often impossible to place speci- 

 mens in any of these subspecies with certainty. 



Key to the Svhspecies of Artemisia dracunculus. 



Heads 3 to 4 mm. broad; branches of inflorescence not drooping at ends; leaves 



2 to 10 mm. wide; herbage glabrous (a) typica (p. 115). 



Heads 2 to 3 mm. broad; branches of inflorescence inclined to droop at ends (except per- 

 haps in glaiica); leaves 1 to 3 mm. wide or to 6 mm. in dracunculina; herbage 

 either glabrous or pubescent. 



Panicle comparatively dense, peduncles mostly 2 mm. or less long (5) glauca (p. 116). 



Panicle loose, peduncles 2 to 6 mm. long and very slender. Southwestern United 



States and Mexico (c) dracunculina (p. 1 16). 



20a. Artemisia dracunculus typica. — Plant glabrous throughout, aromatic; leaves 

 4 to 8 cm. long, 2 to 10 mm. wide, rather thick and firm; branches of the panicle com- 

 pact, erect or ascending to the tip, the peduncles stout and rarely 2 mm. long; involucre 

 3 to 4 mm. broad. {A. dracunculus Linnaeus, 1. c.) The common form in western 

 North America, cultivated and rarely escaped in the eastern States, common also in the 

 Old World. Wyoming and Colorado to Lower California, Washington, Saskatchewan, 

 and Alberta. Type locality, Siberia. Collections: Vicinity of Banff, Alberta, McCalla 

 2018 (NY, US); Yellowstone Lake, Wyoming, A. and E. Nelson 6602 (DS, Gr, NY, type 



