COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



811 



merely spreading ; rays light clear blue or rarely violet. Moist grounds, 



e. Mass, and s. Vt. to Pa., Mo., and la., rare. Sept. FIG. 961. Perhaps 



a hybrid of nos. 14 and 36. 



30. A. multiflorus Ait. Pale or hoary with minute close pubescence, 3-9 



dm. high, much branched and bushy ; the heads much crowded on the spreading 



racemose branches ; leaves rigid, crowded, spreading, with rough or ciliate 

 margins, the uppermost passing into the spatulate obtuse 

 hispidulous-ciliate bracts; heads 5-6 mm. long; rays 

 white or rarely purplish, 10-20. Dry sandy soil, s. Me. 

 to Ont., westw. and southw. Aug.-Oct. FIG. 952. Var. 

 EXIGUUS Fernald. Heads solitary or slightly clustered 

 pro A,, at the tips of slender flexuous branches. Less common. 



37. A. commutatus (T. & G.) Gray. Similar; heads 



larger (7-9 mm. long); rays 20-30 (A. incanopilosus Sheldon.) Plains, 



Minn, to Sask., westw. and south westw. July-Oct. 



-- -t- -i- Bracts glabrous, closely imbricated (the outer regularly shorter}, not 

 coriaceous, with short oppressed green tips; branches slender, divaricate or 

 divergent ; leaves lanceolate to subulate ; heads small (4-7 mm. high} and 

 numerous. 



-w Heads scattered, terminating minutely foliose slender branchlets. 



38. A. dumbsus L. Smooth or nearly so, 3-9 dm. high, the branches slender, 

 loosely paniculate, divergent ; leaves linear or the upper oblong, crowded, entire, 

 with rough margins ; heads rather numerous ; involucre 



obconical or campanulate, with 4-6 rows of linear-spatulate 

 obtuse bracts with abrupt green tips ; rays pale purple or blue, 

 larger than in no. 39. Sandy soil, s. Me. to Ont., and southw., 

 except in the upland regions. Aug., Sept. FIG. 953. 



Var. coridifolius (Michx.) T. & G. Branchlets slender 

 and flexuous, elongated, with minute crowded divergent 

 small leaves, and generally solitary terminal heads. Bar- 

 rens, Mass., and southw. 



Var. strictior T. & G. Branches stiff and ascending. 

 Mass, to Ont. and N. C. 



w- -M- Heads racemosely unilateral upon very short minutely leafy branchlets. 



39. A. vimlneus Lam. Smooth or smoothish, 0.5-2 m. high, bushy, the long 

 branches almost horizontally spreading ; leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate, 



elongated, the larger ones remotely serrate in the middle with 

 fine sharp teeth ; 'heads small, 4-6 mm. high, crowded ; bracts 

 narrowly linear, acute or acutish, in 3-4 rows ; rays white. 

 Moist soil, s. Me. to Ont., westw. and southw. Aug.-Oct. 

 FIG. 954. Var. FOLIOL^SUS (Ait.) Gray. Leaves linear, en- 

 tire ; the ascending branches with more 

 scattered paniculate heads. Similar 

 range. 



Var. saxatilis Fernald. Low (1.6-6 

 dm. high); branches and branchlets 

 short, ascending, leafy-bracteate, termi- 

 nated by solitary larger heads (often 1.5 cm. broad). 

 Rocky shores, N. E. and Que. to O. 



40. A. lateriflbrus (L.) Britton. More or less pubes- 

 cent, much branched ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lance- 

 olate, tapering or pointed at each end, sharply serrate in 



the middle ; bracts of the involucre linear, acute or rather obtuse, imbricated in 

 3-4 /ows. (A. diffusus Ait.) Thickets, fields, etc., very common from N. S. 

 to Ont., and southw. Aug.-Oct. Extensively variable ; leaves larger than in 

 either of the two preceding ; the involucre intermediate between them, as to the 

 form of the bracts. Kays mostly short, white or pale bluish-purple. FIG. 956 



953. A. dumosus. 



954. A. vimineus. 



955. A. lateriflorns. 



