STUDIES IN THE COMPOSIT.E. 173 
A. PLANTAGINIFOLIA. Stem a foot high or more, stoutish : 
stolons short, stout, ascending, leafy throughout: leaves 
with fairly distinet blade and petiole, the former ovate or 
obovate, mueronate, conspicuously 3-nerved: receptacle of 
pistillate lowers hemispherical: styles little exserted, deeply 
cleft: achenes linear, slightly curved, nearly destitute of 
papille: dilatation of pappus-bristles in male flowers strong 
and abrupt. ; 
In contrast with this, the long neglected species offers 
characters as follows: 
A. NEGLECTA. Stems seldom a foot high, slender: stolons 
nearly filiform, elongated, closely prostrate, minutely bracted, 
but properly leafy only terminally: leaves without distinc- 
tion of blade and petiole, narrowly spatulate, 1-nerved, with- 
out trace of lateral nerves, their texture firmer than in the 
above: receptacle of pistillate flowers distinctly conical : 
styles long-exserted, the branches very short: achenes ob- 
long-fusiform, straight, copiously papillose: dilatation of 
pappus in male flowers slight and gradual. 
Both the above species are very common plants in the 
neighborhood of Washington ; the former occurring in great 
abundance in open woodlands and on bushy hills; the latter 
chiefly in meadows and pastures. In aspect they are so dif- 
ferent that it is impossible a botanist, seeing the two grow- 
ing side by side, should fail to perceive them totally distinct. 
I have given above no more than what may be called the 
essential characters of the species. There are severa] other 
notable differences between them. A. plantaginifolia is fully 
three weeks later in its flowering than A. neglecta. The low 
staminate plants (always short-stemmed), in both species, 
are so much earlier in their flowering than the female plants 
that one can scarcely doubt both species are partheno- 
genetic. Male plants of A. plantaginifolia are scarce. One 
may traverse acres of the female plant in full flower without 
being able to detect a single patch of the male. In A. ne- 
