706 CONTKIBUTIONS FEOM THE NATIONAL HEEBAKIUM. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



Disk in fruit oblong, about 1 cm. long 1. R. tagetes. 



Disk In fruit cylindric, 2 to 4 cm. long. 



Rays yellow 2. R. columnifera. 



Rays at least in part brownish purple 2a. R. columnifera pulcherrima. 



1. Ratibida tagetes (James) Bamhart, Bull. Torrey Club 24: 410. 1897. 

 RudbecJcia tagetes James in Long, Exped. 2: 68. 1823. 



Lepachys tagetes A. Gray, U. S. Rep. Expl. Miss. Pacif. 4: 103. 1856. 



Type locality: About 15 miles southwest of La Junta, Colorado. 



Range: Colorado and Kansas to Texas and Arizona. 



New Mexico: Santa Fe; Nara Visa; Las Vegas; Albuquerque; Sandia Mountains; 

 Cross L Ranch; Gallinas Mountains; Estancia; Socorro; Mesilla Valley; Queen; Gray. 

 Plains and river valleys, in the Lower and Upper Sonoran zones. 



2. Ratibida colmnnifera (Nutt.) Woot. & Standi. 

 Rudbechia columnifera Nutt. Eraser's Cat. no. 75. 1813. 

 Rudbeckia columnaris Pursh, Fl. Amer. Sept. 575. 1814. 



Ratibida columnaris D. Don in Sweet, Brit. Flower Gard. II. 4: pi. 361. 1838. 



Lepachys columnaris Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 2: 313. 1842. 



Type locality: Upper Louisiana. 



Range: British Columbia and Saskatchewan to Arizona, Texas, and Tennessee. 



New Mexico: Sierra Grande; mountains west of Grants Station; Santa Fe and Las 

 Vegas mountains; Clayton; Lower Plaza; Wliite and Sacramento mountains. Plains 

 and low hills, in the Upper Sonoran and Transition zones. 



2a. Ratibida columnifera pulcherrima (DC.) Woot. & Standi. 



Obeliscaria pulcherrima DC. Prodr. 6: 559. 1836. 



Ratibida columnaris pulcherrima D. Don in Sweet, Brit. Flower Gard. II. 4: pi. 361. 

 1830. 



Lepachys columnaris pulcherrima Torr. & Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 2: 313. 1842. 



Type locality: "In Mexici provinc. Texas ad San-Fernando de Bejar, et in 

 sinu Spiritus-Sancti ad lacum Sancti-Nicolai." 



Range: With the species, but more common in New Mexico. 



New Mexico: Dulce; Ghama; Pecos; Santa Antonita; Ramah; near Las Vegas; 

 mountains west of Grants Station; El Cedro; Tucumcari; Mcgollon Mountains; White 

 Mountains; Buchanan; Redlands; Queen; Knowles; Artesia. 



This is a mere form of the type and hardly deserves a name. Both forms almost 

 invariably occur together, although occasionally they grow alone. It is possible to 

 find in a single patch every possible gradation in the color of the rays from pure bright 

 yellow to solid brown-purple. The same variation in color occurs in R. tagetes, but 

 since that has very small and inconspicuous rays no one has yet thought to distinguish 

 the various forms by name. 



70. DRACOPIS Cass. 



Annual, 30 to 60 cm. high, with somewhat glaucous, entii'e or serrate, sessile or 

 clasping leaves; involucre of a few small foliaceous bracts; rays oblong, yellow; disk 

 brownish, cylindric in age; achenes small, minutely rugulose, nearly terete, not 

 angled; pappus none. 



1. Dracopis amplexicaulis (Vahl) Cass. Diet. Sci. Nat. 35: 273. 1836. 

 Rudbechia amplexicaulis Vahl, Skrivt. Naturh.-Selsk. (Kj0benhavn) 2^: 29. pi. 4- 



1793. 

 Type locality: "Habitat in Louisiana?" 

 Range : Missouri and Louisiana to Texas and New Mexico. 

 New Mexico: Las Cruces (IFboton). Low ground. 

 Collected but once in the Mesilla Valley, where it had probably been introduced. 



