STNGEXESIA. ^(^UALIS. 131 



This vast genus, containing more than 100 species, is 

 almost exclusively indigenous to Europe; a few species 

 exist in Harbary, Egypt, Persia, Siberia and the Levant, 

 there is also 1 doubtful species in India; Carduus appears 

 properly to be confined to the temperate regions of tlie 

 northern hemisphere. 



539. LIATRIS. Schreber. 



Calix oblonj^, imbricate, lleceptade naked. 

 Fapjms plumose, persistent, (often coloured). 

 Anthers entire at the base. Seed pubescent, stri- 

 ate, and inversely conic. 



Herbaceous perennials; roots tuberous or fibrous; 

 leaves alternate, perfectly entire, often narrow, glandu- 

 larly punctate; fldwers spilled, or subcorymbose, purp'"; 

 calix 5, 10, or 20-flo\vered — (Stj le bifid, exserted; seed 

 minutely stipitate at the base, striate, strix about 10; in- 

 tegument of the seed multivalvular.) 



§ I. Flovjers spiked, roots tuberous. 



Species. 1. L. spicata. Calix about lO-fiowered. 2. 

 plicnosfachva. 3. gramini folia. 4. cylindracca. 



5. '* tenuifoUa. Slender and every where smooth; leaves 

 filiformh -linear, very long and crowded, diminishing up- 

 wards into short bractes; raceme very long; peduncles 

 filiform, and squamose; calix oblong, mostly 5-flovv-ered, 

 scales obions: and mncronulate. Hab. In the sandy fo- 

 rests of North and South Carolina. Tuber scarcely as 

 large as a walnut. Stem simple, 2 to 3 or 4 feet high, 

 and as well as the leaves smooth. Leaves almost like 

 those ol Pinus pabistris, but flat and linear, near a span 

 long at the root, where tiiey are circularly crowded, and 

 no broader than an ordinary sowing thread, gradually di- 

 minishing upv/ards, they become at length scarcely an 

 inch long, and are, after the manner of the genus, covered 

 with impressed punctures. Raceme from 1 to 2 feet long; 

 peduncles nearly an inch. Florets purple, internally 

 smooth, externally scattered, as usual, with brilliant resi- 

 nous aioms. Pappus plumose, scarcely longer than the 

 villous seed. A very singular and elegant species- 



6. heterophylla. Calix 8 to 10-flowered. 7. aspera. 8. 

 pilosa, /3. grucllin. L, gracilis. Ph. 2. p. 50S. This plant, 

 with which I am acquainted, appears to be merely a 

 smoother variety of L. pilosa, but even this plant has a pu- 

 bescent stem. Calix 8 to 10-flowered. 



9. * retinosa. Glabrous; leaves linear and crowded; 

 powers spiked, closely sessile; calix oblong, 4 and 5- 



