DIPLOPAPPUS LINARIIFOLIUS. 

 SANDPAPER STAR-WORT. 



NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSIT.E. 



DlPLOPAPPUS LINARIIFOLIUS, Hooker. — Stem straight, roiighish; branches one-flovvered, fasti- 

 giate; scales imbticate, carinate, as long as the disk; leaves linear, entire, one-veined, 

 macronate, carinate, rough, rigid, those of the branches recurved. Stems sub-simple, pur- 

 plish, about one foot high. Leaves numerous, obtuse, vv'ith a small mucronate point, 

 shining above. Branchlets near the top, leafy, each with one rather large and showy, 

 violet-colored head. (Wood's Class- Book of Botany. Sen ^\?,o Gray's Majtiml of Botany 

 of the N'orthern United States, and Chapman's Flora of the Southern United States.) 



LARGE number of the composite or asteraceous plants 

 of our country have a some-what coarse foliage or habit 

 of growth, with which the present elegant species is in strik- 

 ing contrast. In some parts of the world, the Cape of Good 

 Hope especially, there are many with such a slender and pleas- 

 ing habit as this , and indeed a first glance at our species by 

 one familiar with the vegetation of those distant parts of the 

 world would create the impression, in the absence of positive 

 knowledge, that it was an exotic plant. Indeed, there are species 

 of this same genus, Diplopappus, native to the Cape of Good 

 Hope as well as to the United States. These relationships with 

 the Flora of such distant parts of the world are always of great 

 interest to the student of botanical geography. The species, 

 however, are not very numerous there or here. Even allowing 

 for some which may perhaps rightfully belong to other genera, 

 there may not be many over a couple of dozen of species in all. 

 It was originally classed with Aster; and in fact there is very 

 little beyond the general habit and appearance to distinguish it. 

 The "Treasury of Botany" tells us the genus is "very near Aster, 

 and only differing in the nature of the pappus, which is double, the 



03) 



