VERBESINA 



VERNONIA 



3447 



pappus of 2 (1-3) awns, sometimes with 2 or 3 inter- 

 mediate scales. About 50 species, American. About a 

 half dozen hardy perennial verbesinas have slight rank 

 as garden plants, but the competition among yellow- 

 fld. autumn-blooming composites is so great that ver- 

 besinas have little chance. They make acceptable wild- 

 garden and back-border subjects. 



occidentalis, Walt. (V.Siegesbeckia, Michx. Phaethusa 

 occidentalis, Brit.). Hardy perennial herb, 4-8 ft. high: 

 Ivs. ovate (uppermost oblong-lanceolate), acuminate, 



3912. Verbena canadensis; formerly known as V. Aabletia. (XJi) 



serrate, the larger ones 8 in. long, contrasted into a 

 marginal petiole: rays styliferous and usually fertile: 

 awns of pappus not hooked. Dry hillsides, E. U. S. 

 A robust and rather coarse plant, growing 48 ft. high, 

 and suitable only for the wild-gardens and the back 

 row of the hardy border. It is doubtless of the easiest 

 cult. It blooms from Aug. to Oct., and has numerous 

 yellow fls. }fa-\ in. across in flattish clusters. 



crocata, Less. A much-branched, hairy perennial 

 with a fleshy 4-winged st. : Ivs. opposite, decurrent. irreg- 

 ularly pinnately lobed, the lobes usually ovate and much 

 toothed: fls. in solitary, peduncled heads, not very 

 showy: achenes quite glabrous. Mex. Offered by 

 Montarioso Nursery at Santa Barbara, otherwise little 

 known. Perhaps not hardy north of Washington. 



T'. Ptlrpusii, T. S. Brandeg. Dwarf: Ivs. in a rosette, elliptic, 

 4-5 La. long: scapes 8-12 in. long, each bearing a solitary fl.-head 

 1 J .-2 in. across; ray-florets deep golden. Mex. V. Tirginica, Linn. 

 (Phsthusa virginica, Brit,). VIBGIXIA CBOWNBEABD. A hairy- 

 stemmed perennial with winged branches and white corymbose- 

 paniculate heads has been offered. It is a wild-garden subject that 

 would be good to naturalize. E. N. Amer. Gt.. 47, p. 132. 



N. TAYLOR.! 



VERNONIA (after Wm. Vernon, an English botanist 

 who traveled in North America). Composite. IRON- 

 WEED. Perennial herbs or in the tropics shrubs and 

 trees. 



Leaves alternate, pinnately veined: fls. usually purple 

 or rose, borne in the following species in terminal cymes : 

 heads not glomerate, several to many exclusively tubu- 

 lar-fid.: involucre of dry or partly herbaceous, much- 

 imbricated bracts: corolla regularly 5-cleft into narrow 

 lobes: achenes 8-10-ribbed, with a blunt apex and a 

 cartilaginous, callous base; pappus double (at least in 

 American species). About 560 species widely scattered 

 about the world, but is possibly most plentiful in S. 

 Amer. The latest monograph is that by H. A. Gleason in 

 Bull. N. Y. Bot. Card. 4:144-243, 1906. The following 



species are native of the U. S., and are hardy perennial 

 herbs of attractive appearance, with rather large heads 

 of purple fls. in terminal clusters in late summer or early 

 fall. Vernonias are of easy cult, in any good, rich 

 border, being easily prop, by division. Very satisfac- 

 tory groupings can be made with vernonias and native 

 asters and goldenrods. 



A. Heads 50-70-fld. 



crinita, Raf. (V. arkansdna, DC.). St. 8-10 ft. high: 

 Ivs. linear-lanceolate, 4-12 in. long, alternate-acumi- 

 nate, glabrous or somewhat pubescent: peduncles not 

 branched: involucre green, the filiform tips often red- 

 dish and the pappus often purplish. Plains, Mo., Kans. 

 to Texas. July-Sept. Var. alba, Hort., has white fls. 



AA. Heads 15-40-fld. 

 B. Lvs. narrowly linear, 

 c. Plant about 1 ft. high. 



Lindheimeri, Gray & Engelm. St. excessively leafy 

 up to the infl.: Ivs. 1M~3 in. long by 1-2 lines wide, 

 white-tomentose, with revolute margins: fls. in a corym- 

 biform cyme. July-Sept. Rocky hills, W. Texas. 



cc. Plant 2-4 ft. high. 



Lettermanii, Engelm. St. fastigiately and cymosely 

 much branched at the summit: Ivs. 2-4 in. long, only 1 

 line wide, much crowded and very numerous; margins 

 not revolute: fl.-heads numerous, ^2in- long, 10-14-fld. 

 July-Sept. Sandy soil, Ark. 



BB. Lvs. not narrowly linear. 

 C. Bracts of involucre tipped with slender awns. 

 noveboracensis, Willd. Fig. 3913. St. 3-6 ft.: Ivs. 

 oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 3-9 in. long: heads in an 

 open cyme : involucre commonly brownish or dark pur- 

 plish: fls. deep purple, rarely white. Usually in moist 

 soil. July-Sept. The only common species of the E. 

 U. S. and often used in the wild-garden. 



cc. Bracts not awned. 



D. Plant tomentose. 



Baldwinii, Torr. St. 3-7 ft. high : Ivs. oblong to ovate- 

 lanceolate, 4-8 in. long, rather numerous: bracts 

 greenish, acute or acuminate, tips spreading or reflexed: 

 fls. purplish, blooming earlier than most species, in July 

 and Aug. Prairies, eastern Mo. to Texas. 



DD. Plant glabrous. 



E. Lvs. thin. 



altissima, Nutt. (V. maxima, Small). St. 5-10 ft. 

 high: Ivs. veiny, lanceolate or lanceolate-oblong, 4-12 

 in. long, usually long-acuminate and finely serrate: 

 infl. loosely branched and open, the fls. purple: bracts 

 obtuse or merely .mucro- 

 nate-tipped, closely ap- 

 pressed. July-Sept. W. 

 Pa. to HI., La., and Fla. 



EE. Lvs. thickish. 

 fasciculate, Michx. St. 

 2-5 ft. high: Ivs. some- 

 what obscurely veined, 

 linear to oblong-lanceo- 

 late, 3-6 in. long: heads 

 numerous and crowded on 

 the branches of the cyme, 

 20-30-fld.: bracts obtuse 

 or some of the upper 

 mucronate- acute, closely^ 

 appressed. July-Sept. 

 Ohio and Ky. to the 

 Dakotas and south to 

 Texas. Grows on prairies 3 913. Isolated specimen clump 

 and in moist soil; variable O f ironweed. Vernonia nove- 

 southward. boracensis. 



