COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 201 



flimple, of equal capillary bristles. Perennial herbs, with mostly waud-liko 

 stems and nearly sessile stem-leaves, never heart-shaped. Heads small, racemed 

 or clustered: flowers both of the disk and ray (except No. 2) yellow. (Name 

 from solido, to join, or make whole, in allusion to its reputed vulnerary quali- 

 ties.) Flowering Aug. - Oct. 



$ 1. CHRYSASTRUM, Torr. & Gr. Scales of the much imbricated rigid in- 

 volucre ivith abruptly spreading herbaceous tips : heads in clusters or glomerate ra- 

 cemes disposed in a dense somewhat leafy and interrupted wand-like compound spike. 



1. S. squaiTOSa, Muhl. Stem stout (2 -5 high), hairy above; leaves 

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

 serrate, veiny; disk-flowers 16-24, the rays 12-16. Rocky wooded hills, 

 Maine and W. Vermont to Penn., and the mountains of Virginia. 



$ 2. VIRGAtlREA, Tourn. Scales of the involucre destitute of herbaceous tips : 

 rays mostly fewer than the disk-flowers : heads all more or less pedicelled. 



# Heads in close clusters or short clustered racemes in the axils of the feather-veined 



leaves. (Rays 3 -6.) 



2. S. tricolor, L. Hoary or grayish with soft hairs ; stem mostly simple ; 

 leaves oblong or elliptical-lanceolate, acute at both ends, or the lower oval and 

 tapering into a petiole, slightly sen-ate ; clusters or short racemes from the axils of 

 the upper leaves, forming an interrupted spike or crowded panicle ; rays small, 

 cream-color or nearly ivhite. Var. CONCOLOR has the rays yellow. Dry copses 

 and banks, common : the var. in Pennsylvania and westward. 



3. S. latifdlia, L. Smooth or nearly so, stem angled, zigzag, simple or 

 paniculate-branched (1- 3 high) ; leaves broadly ovate or oval, very strongly and 

 sharply serrate, conspicuously pointed at both ends (thin, 3' -6' long); heads in 

 very short axillary sessile clusters, or somewhat prolonged at the end of the 

 branches. Moist shaded banks, in rich soil; common northward, and along 

 the mountains. 



4. S. Cfesia, L. Smooth ; stem terete, mostly glaucous, at length much 

 branched and difl'use ; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, 

 sessile ; heads in very short axillary clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled 

 on the branches. Moist rich woodlands ; common. Heads rather smaller than 

 in the last. 



* * Racemes terminal, erect, either somewhat simple and ^vand-like, or compound and 



p&nided, not. one-sided: leaves feather-veined. (Not maritime.} 

 -*- Heads small: leaves nearly entire, except the lowermost. 



5. S. Virgata, Michx. Very smooth throughout; stem strict and simple, 

 icand-like (2 -4 high), slender, beset with small and entire appressed lanceo- 

 late-oblong leaves, which are gradually reduced upwards to mere bracts ; the 

 lowest oblong-spatulate, all thickish and smooth ; heads crowded in a very narrow 

 compound spicate receme ; rays 5-7. Damp pine barrens, New Jersey to Vir- 

 ginia and southward. 



6. S. pllberilla, Nutt. Stem (l-3 high, simple or branched) and 

 panicle very minutely hoary ; stem-leaves lanceolate, acute, tapering to the base, 

 smootbish ; the lo\vcr wedge-lanceolate and ,*p<m'/i>/!f/ toot/nd; heads very nu- 



