788 coMi-osiTAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



4. C. gossypina (Michx.) Nutt. Biennial, densely Innate, the pubescence 

 becoming floccose ; leaves short-spatulate to oblong, rounded at tip, ichite-lanate ; 

 heads few, long-ped uncled ; involucre woolly or becoming glabrate and merely 

 glandular. (C'. pilosa Britton, not Nutt.) Pine barrens, Va. to Fla, 



-- -t- Stems hirsute to villous, the hairs persistent. 



5. C. villdsa Nutt. Hirsute and villous-pubescent ; stem corymbosely 

 branched, the branches terminated by single short-peduncled heads ; leaves 

 narrowly oblong, hoary with rough pubescence (as also the involucre), brist'.y- 

 ciliate toward the base ; achenes 3-o-nerved ; outer pappus setulose-sqnamellate. 

 {C. camporum Greene.) Dry plains and prairies, Man. and Wise- to Ky., 

 westw. and southw. July-Sept. 



6. C. pilbsa Nutt. Annual, soft-hirsute or villous ; leaves oblong-lanceolate ; 

 involucre viscid; achenes IQ-nerved; outer pappus chaffy and conspicuous. (C. 

 Nuttallii Britton.) Open places, Kan., and southw. 



15. SOLIDAGO L. GOLDEN-ROD 



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

 involucre appressed, destitute of herbaceous tips (except nos. 1 and 2). Recep- 

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

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

 sessile or nearly sessile never heart-shaped stem-leaves. Heads small, raceuied 

 or clustered ; flowers both of the disk and ray yellow (cream-color in no. 6). 

 Closely related species tending to hybridize freely. (Name from solidare, to 

 join, or make whole, in allusion to reputed vulnerary qualities.) 



1. VIRGAtJREA DC. Says mostly fewer than the disk-Jlowers ; heads all 

 more or less pediceled. 



* Bracts 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. squarr&sa Muhl. Stem stout, 0.2-1.5 m. high, hairy above ; leaves 

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

 serrate, veiny; heads numerous; bracts obtuse or acute; disk-flowers 10-24, 

 the rays 12-16. Rocky and wooded hills, N. B. to Ont., s. to Va. and O. ; rare 

 southw. Aug.-early Oct. 



2. S. petiolaris Ait. Minutely hoary or downy ; stem strict, simple, 0.2-1 in. 

 high ; leaves small (1-7 dm. long), oval or oblong, inucronate, veiny, rough- 

 ciliolate, minutely puberulent, dull or slightly lustrous ; the upper entire and 

 abruptly very short-petioled, the lower often serrate and tapering to the base ; 

 heads few, in a wand-like raceme or panicle, on slender bracted pedicels : rays 

 about 10, elongated ; bracts of the pubescent involucre lanceolate or linear-awl- 

 shaped, the outer loose and spreading, more or less foliaceous. Dry woods, 

 s. w. 111. to Kan., N. C., and southw. Aug. -Oct. The name is misleading, as 

 the leaves are hardly petioled. Var. WARDII (Britton) Fernald. Leaves firm 

 and strongly glutinous, somewhat lustrous. (S. Wardii Britton.) Open rocky 

 or sandy ground, Mo. and Kan. to Tex. 



* * Involucral bracts without green tips and wholly appressed. 



*- Heads small; the involucres 26 (rarely 6) mm. long, clustered along the 

 stem in the axils of the feather-veined leaves, or the upper forming a (hyrye. 



*+ Achenes pubescent. 

 = Stem terete, mostly glaucous (the bloom easily rubbed off). 



3. S. caSsia L. Smooth : at length much branched and diffuse ; leaves 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, sessile ; heads in very short 

 clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled on the branches. Deciduous woods, 

 s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and southw, Aug.-Oct. Var. AXIU.XKIS (Pursh) Gray 



