COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 231 



with alternate leaves and solitary or corymbed heads. Flowers chiefly yellow. 

 (Name from senex, an old man, alluding to the hoary hairs which cover many 

 species, or to the white hairs of the pappus.) 



* Rays none : root annual. 



1. S vuLGlRis, L. (COMMON GROUNDSEL.) Nearly smooth (6'- 12' 

 high) ; leaves pinnatifid and toothed, clasping ; heads loosely corymbed. 

 Waste grounds, E. New England and New York. (Adv. from Eu.j 



* * Rays present : root perennial : heads corymbed. 



2. S. aureus, L. (GOLDEN RAGWORT. SQUAW-WEED.) Smooth, or 

 fioccose-wooUy when young (W -30' high) ; root-leaves simple and rounded, the lar- 

 ger mostly heart-shaped, crenate-toothed, long-pet ioled ; the lower stem-leaves lyre- 

 shaped, upper ones lanceolate, cut-pinnatifid, sessile or partly clasping ; corymb 

 umbel-like; rays 8-12. Varies greatly, the leading forms being, Var. 1. 

 OBOVATUS, with the root-leaves rouud-obovate (growing in drier places). 

 Var. 2. BALSAMIT^E, with the root-leaves oblong, spatulate, or lanceolate, 

 sometimes cut-toothed, tapering into the petiole. Rocky places. Var. 3. LAN- 

 CEOLATUS, Oakes, with the leaves all lanceolate-oblong, thin, sharply and un- 

 equally toothed, either wedge-shaped or somewhat heart-shaped at the base, the 

 upper merely pinnatifid-cut towards the base. (Cedar swamps, Vermont, Rob- 

 bins.) Common everywhere ; the primary form in swamps. May, June. 



3. S. EIIi6ltii, Torr. & Gr. Soon smooth, stem simple (1 high), often 

 nearly leafless, bearing a small corymb ; root-leaves thickish, obovate or roundish, 

 narrowed into a short and winged petiole, or sessile, crenate-toothed, sometimes ly- 

 rate ; stem-leaves small, cut-pinnatifid. Rich soil, Virginia and southward 

 along the mountains. May. 



4. S. tomentoSUS, Michx. (WOOLLY RAGWORT.) Clothed with scarce* 

 ly deciduous hoary wool (l-2 high) ; root-leaves oblong, obtuse, crenate-toothed, 

 on slender petioles; the upper sessile; corymb flat-topped; rays 12-15. 

 Mountains of Penn. (Pursh), Virginia and southward. May. 



5. CANUS, Hook., which too closely resembles the last, probably occurs 

 within our Northwestern borders. 



64. ARNICA, L. ARNICA. 



Heads many-flowered, radiate ; the rays pistillate. Scales of the bell-shaped 

 involucre lanceolate, equal, somewhat in 2 rows. Receptacle flat, fimbrillate. 

 Achenia spindle-shaped. Pappus a single row of rather rigid and strongly 

 roughened-denticulate bristles. Perennial herbs, chiefly of the mountains and 

 cold northern regions, with simple stems, bearing single or corymbed large 

 heads and opposite leaves. Flowers yellow. (Name thought to be a corruption 

 of Ptarmica.) 



1. A. lliollis. Hook. Soft-hairy; stem leafy (l-2 high), bearing 1 to 5 

 heads ; leaves thin, veiny, smoothish when old, toothed ; the upper ovate-lanceolate, 

 closely sessile ; the lower narrower, tapering into a margined petiole ; scales of 

 the involucre pointed; pappus almost plumose. Alpine rivulets, &c., White 

 Mountains of N. Hampshire and mountains of N. New York ; thmce northwest- 

 ward. Julv. 



