COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 203 



2. V. olitoria, Poll. Flowers pale blue; fruit compressed, oblique, 

 with a corky mass at the back of the fertile cell, the empty cells large and 

 sometimes confluent; stem and leaves as in F. radiuta. New Orleans. 

 Introduced. 



3. V. Woodsiana, U'alp., var. patellaria, Gray. Flowers white; 

 fruit circular, notched u, both ends, the empty cells concave, broader than the 

 fertile one, and forming a wing around it. Nashville (Dr. Gattinger). 



ORDER 74. DIPSACACE^E. (TEASEL FAMILY.) 



Plants in habit and inflorescence resembling the next order, but 

 with separate anthers, and albuminous suspended seeds, represented 

 here by a single species of 



1. DIPSACUS, Touru. TEASEL. 



Heads oblong. Involucre many-leaved. Flowers in the axil of a thin awn- 

 pointed bract, and enclosed in a 4-leaved involucel. Calyx 4-angled, truncate, 

 adnate to the 1-celled, 1-ovuled ovary. Corolla 4-cleft. Stamens 4, inserted 

 on the corolla. Tall biennials. 



1. D. sylvestris, Miller. Stem prickly, 3 -5 high; leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, the lowest oblong, crenate serrate ; involucre longer than the 

 head ; bracts straight awued ; flowers pale purple. North Carolina. Intro- 

 duced from Europe. 



ORDER 75. COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



Flowers clustered in a dense head upon a common receptacle, and 

 surrounded by an involucre. Calyx united with the ovary ; the limb 

 (prippm) either obsolete, or forming a cup-like or toothed border, or 

 divided into chaffy scales or bristles. Corolla superior, flat or funnel- 

 shaped, 5- (rarely 4-) lobed, valvate in the bud. Stamens alternate 

 with the lobes of the corolla, and inserted into its tube : anthers co- 

 hering in a cylinder (syngenesious). Style single : stigmas 2. Fruit 

 (achenium) dry and seed-like. Seed solitary, erect, without albumen. 

 Radicle inferior. Herbs or shrubs. Leaves without stipules. Invo- 

 lucre composed of short or leafy bracts (scales of the involucre), arranged 

 in 1 - many series. Receptacle naked, or furnished with scales (clnffi/). 

 Heads with the flowers all tubular (discoid), or all strap-shaped, or 

 the marginal ones strap-shaped or ligulate (radiate). 



Artificial Synopsis of the Genera. 



SUBORDER I. TUBULIFLORJE. Corolla of the perfect flowers tubu- 

 lar, equally 5- (rarely 3-4-) lobed. Ray flowers, when present, ligulate, 

 either pistillate or neutral. 



