434 



COMPOSITAE. 



VOL. III. 



32. LEUCELENE Greene, Pittonia 3: 147. 1896. 



Low perennial herbs, with much branched leafy stems, sessile, rather rigid, narrow, 

 entire leaves and small heads of both tubular and radiate white flowers, solitary at the ends 

 of the numerous slender branchlets, involucre turbinate, its bracts well imbricated. Disk- 

 flowers perfect, their corollas white, tubular-funnelform, 5-toothed. Ray-flowers numerous, 

 white, or drying red to rose, pistillate. Style appendages acutish. Achenes elongated, flat- 

 tened, hispidulous. Pappus a single series of slender rough white bristles. [Greek, referring 

 to the white disk.] 



Two or three species, natives of the central and southwestern States and Mexico, the follow- 

 ing typical. 



i. Leucelene ericoides (Torr.) Greene. Rose 

 Heath Aster. Fig. 4357. 



Inula (?) ericoides Torr. Ann. Lye. N. Y. 2: 212. 1828. 

 Aster ericaefolius Rothrock, Bot. Gaz. 2: 70. 1877. 

 Leucelene ericoides Greene, Pittonia 3: 148. 1896. 



Stems tufted from deep woody roots, corymbosely 

 much branched, 3'-i2' high, hispid or scabrous, the 

 branches erect or diffuse. Leaves hispid-ciliate, erect, 

 or slightly spreading, obtusish or mucronulate, the 

 lower arud basal ones spatulate, 3"-6" long, tapering 

 into short petioles, the upper sessile, linear or linear- 

 spatulate ; heads terminating the branches, 5"-8" 

 broad ; involucre broadly turbinate, its bracts lanceo- 

 late, appressed, scarious-margined, imbricated in 3 

 or 4 series; rays 12-15, white to rose, 2"-4" long. 



In dry soil, western Nebraska to Kansas, Texas and 

 New Mexico. May-Aug. 



33. BRACHYACTIS Ledeb. Fl. Ross. 2 : 495. 1846. 



Annual, nearly glabrous, somewhat fleshy herbs, with narrow chiefly entire leaves, and 

 small racemose or racemose-paniculate heads of tubular, or also radiate purplish flowers. 

 Involucre campanulate. Central flowers of the head few, perfect, their narrow corollas 

 4-5-toothed; outer flowers pistillate, usually in 2 series or more, and more numerous than 

 the perfect ones ; style-appendages lanceolate ; rays very short, or none. Achenes 2-3-nerved, 

 slender, appressed-pubescent. Pappus a single series of nearly white bristles. [Greek, short 

 rays.] 



About 5 species, natives of western North America and northern Asia. Type species : Brachy- 

 actis ciliata Ledeb. 



i. Brachyactis angusta (Lindl.) Britton. 



Tripolium angustum Lindl.; Hook. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 15. 



1834- 



Aster angustus T. & G. Fl. N. A. 2 : 162. 1841. 

 Brachyactis angusta Britton, in Britt. & Brown ; 111. Fl. 



3:383- 1898. 



Stem usually sparsely pubescent, at least above, 

 racemosely or rarely paniculately branched, 6'-24' 

 high, striate, at least when dry. Leaves linear, fleshy, 

 ciliate on the margins, acutish, entire, sessile by a 

 rather broad base, the basal (when present) spatu- 

 late ; heads 4"-6" broad, racemose on the ascending 

 branches, or terminating them ; involucre campanu- 

 late or nearly hemispheric, 2"-$" high, its bracts 

 linear or linear-oblong, somewhat foliaceous, green, 

 acute or acutish, imbricated in 2 or 3 series, glabrous 

 or slightly ciliate, nearly equal; rays none, or rudi- 

 mentary; pappus soft and copious. 



In wet saline soil, or sometimes in waste places, Min- 

 nesota to Saskatchewan, Utah and Colorado, and along 

 the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. Found also about 

 Chicago. July-Sept. 



Brachyactis frondosa (Nutt.) A. Gray, of the Rocky 

 Mountain region, differing by bluntly pointed leaves and 

 oblong or oblanceolate involucral bracts, has been found 

 on Prince Edward Island. 



Rayless Aster. Fig. 4358. 



