COMPOSIT.E. (composite FAMILY.) 281 



nnd Ed. 2) is tall, with a thick and hollow very leafy stem (4° -9° high), smooth 

 Oi nearly so i leaves long, most ol'tlieni runciuatc-pinnatilid ; heads very numer- 

 ous, iu a long and narrow naked panicle ; flowers mostly pale yellow. — Rich 

 and damp soil, borders of fields or thickets: common, especially northward. — 

 The following are perhaps to be restored as species : — 



Var. integrifblia, Torr. & Gr. ( L. integrifblia, Bii/tl.) Stem 3° - 6° high ; 

 leaves all undivided, either entire or sharply denticulate; panicle more ojrcn ; 

 flowers pale yellow, cream-color, or purple. — Open and dry or sterile soil, E. 

 New England near the coast to Illinois and southward. 



Var. sanguinea, Torr. .<: Cir. (!.. .^-an^uinea. /%./.) Lower and less 

 stout (2°-')° high); leaves all runcinate-iiiinialilid, the midrili beneath and 

 lower part of the stem often sparsely bristly-hairy ; heads fewer, in a loose open 

 ])aiiiele ; flowers yeilow-purijle, reddish with or without a yellow centre, or rarely 

 white. — Open dry ground, Eastern New England to New Jersey, Illinois, and 

 southward. 



2. L. ScakIola, L. (Pricki.y Letticic.) Annual or biennial ; stem 

 below sparsely prickly-bristly, as also the midrib on the lower face of the sagit- 

 tate-clasping oblong or lanceolate spinulose-denticnlate vertical leaves; panicle 

 narrow ; heads small, few-flowered ; achenia striate. — Waste grounds and road- 

 sides, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Adv. from Eu.) 



84. MULGEDIUM, Cass. False or lii.tE Lettt'ce. 



Heads many-flowered. Involucre, &c. as in Lactuca. Achenia laterally com- 

 pressed, striate or ribbed, the summit contracted into a short and thick (or in 

 No. 1 slender) beak or neek of the same texture, expanded at the apex into a 

 ciliate disk, which bears a copious rather deciduous pappus of soft capillary 

 bristles. — Leafy-stemmed herbs, with the general aspect and foliage of Lactuca ; 

 ours glabrous or nearly so. Heads raeemed or i)aiiiclcd ; the flowers chiefly 

 blue ; in summer. (Name from muh/eo, to milk.) 



* Pappus bright wfiite: flowers blue. 



1. M. pulchellum, Nutt. Pere«;//a/, pale or glaucous; stem simple, 1°- 

 2° high ; leaves sessile, oblong- or linear-lanceolate, entire, or the lower runei- 

 nate-pinnatifid ; heads few and large, racemose, erect ; scales of the conical-cylin- 

 draceous involucre lanceolate, imbricated in 3 or 4 ranks ; the peduncles scaly- 

 bracted ; achenia taprrinfj into a slender beak, almost as in Lactuca. — Upper 

 Michigan {Prof. Porter, &c.), probably in N. W. Wisconsin: common on the 

 plains westward. 



2. M. acuminiltum, DC Tall biennial (3° -CO high), with many small 

 lieads in a loose panicle, on diverging peduncles ; leatrx ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 pointed, bareh/ toolheil, .sometimes hairy on the midril) beneath, contracted into a 

 winged jjctiole, the lowest occasionally sinuate; achenia with a very short beak. 

 — Borders of thickets. New York to Illinois, and .southward.— Probably only 

 an eutire-lfavcd state of the next. 



3. M. FiOridknUm, DC. Lem-es all li/rate iir rimrliiii/i , ihi' upper olteu 

 with a heart-shaped clas|)iug base; panicle larger: otherwise as Nj. 2.— Rich 

 soil, Pennsvlvaniii to Illinois and southward. 



L & M— 32 



