246 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



capillary bristles. Flowers yellow. Leaves scattered, oblanceolate or linear, 

 1 -3-nerved. A large western genus, few species approaching our limits. 

 (Dedicated by l)e Candolle to Dr. Jacob Bigelow, author of the Florula Bos- 

 toniensis, and of the American Medical Botany.) 



1. B. nudata, DC. A smooth perennial; the slender stem (1 -2 high) 

 simple or branched from the base, naked above, corymbose at the summit, 

 bearing small heads in a flat-topped corymb. Low pine barrens, N. J. (rare), 

 and southward. Sept. 



17. SOLI DA GO, L. GOLDEN-ROD. 



Heads few - many-flowered, radiate ; the rays 1-16, pistillate. Scales of the 

 oblong involucre appressed, destitute of herbaceous tips (except n. 1 and 2). 

 Receptacle small, not chaffy. Achenes many-ribbed, nearly terete ; pappus 

 simple, of equal capillary bristles. Perennial herbs, with mostly wand-like 

 stems and nearly sessile stem-leaves, never heart-shaped. Heads small, ra- 

 cemed or clustered ; flowers both of the disk and ray (except n. 6) yellow. 

 (Name from so/idus and ago, to join, or make whole, in allusion to reputed 

 vulnerary qualities.) Flowering in autumn. 



Conspectus of Groups. 



Heads small, sessile in flat-topped corymbs ; leaves linear 41,42 



Heads all more or less pedicelled. 



Involucral scales rigid, with spreading herbaceous tips 1,2 



Involucral scales without green tips. 



Heads in a compound terminal corymb, not at all racemose .... 37-40 

 Heads small, mostly clustered in the axils of feather-veined leaves . . .3-7 

 Heads mostly large, in a terminal thyrse ; leaves feather-veined. 



\Vestern species 8, 9 



Northern or mountain species 10-12 



Heads mostly small or middle-sized inflorescence paniculate (sometimes thyrsoidal). 

 Leaves 3-ribbed ; heads in 1-sided spreading panicled racemes. 



Stem and leaves smooth and glabrous 29-32 



Pubescent or scabrous 33-36 



Leaves not 3-ribbed, or only obscurely triple-nerved. 

 Heads large ; leaves thickish, very smooth, entire. Seashore . . . .13 



Panicle virgate or thyrsoid ; leaves nearly entire 14-17 



Heads very small in a short broad panicle : leaves nearly entire . . . 18-20 

 Heads racemosely paniculate ; leaves ample, the lower serrate . . 21-28 



1. VIRGA^TREA. Rays mostly fewer than the disk-flowers ; heads all more 



or less pedicelled. 



* Scales of the much imbricated and rigid involucre with abruptly spreading 

 herbaceous tips ; heads in clusters or glomerate racemes, disposed in a dense 

 somewhat leafy and interrupted wand-like compound spike. 



1. S. squarr6sa, Muhl. Stem stout (2-5 high), hairy above; leaves 

 large, oblong, or the lower spatulate-oval and tapering into a margined petiole, 

 serrate, veiny ; heads numerous ; scales obtuse or acute ; disk-flowers 1 6 - 24, 

 the rays 12-16. Rocky and wooded hills, Maine and W. Vt. to Penn., 

 Ohio, and the mountains of Va. ; rather rare. 



2. S. petiolaris, Ait. Minutely hoary or downy; stem strict, simple (1 - 

 3 high); leaves small (i-2' long), oval or oblong, mucronate, veiny, rough- 

 ciliolate ; the upper entire and abruptly very short-petioled, the lower often ser 



