MiKANiA. COMPOSIT^^ 331 



Stem 3-6 feet or more in length, branching, striate. Leaves mostly about 2^ inches long, 

 somewhat triangular in the outline, tapering above into a long slender point, sprinkled on both 

 sides with very minute resinous particles. Flowers in numerous compound cymose panicles. 

 Involucral scales acute. Corolla purplish white, or pale flesh-color. 



Moist shady thickets, particularly along rivers ; rather common. - August - September. 



Subtribe 2. Tussilagine^, Less. Heads with the flowers dissimilar or somewhat dioecious 

 {white, purplish, or sometimes yellow) ; the pistillate one either ligulate or tubular. 



5. NARDOSMIA. Cass, in diet. sc. nat^M. p. 186 ^Endl. gen. 2285. 



SWEET COLTSFOOT. 

 [ From the Greek, nardos, spikenard, and osme, odor.] 



Heads many-flowered, somewhat dioecious. Sterile Pl. Flowers of the ray in a single 

 series, pistillate, ligulate ; of the disk numerous, perfect- but infertile, with the corolla 

 tubular. Fertile Pl. Flowers of the ray in several series, pistillate, mostly ligulate ; 

 those of the disk few. Scales of the involucre in a single series, equal to or shorter than 

 the flower. Receptacle flat, naked. Achenia somewhat terete, smooth. Pappus capillary, 

 shorter and less copious in the sterile than in the fertile plant. — Perennial herbs. Leaves 

 radical, cordate, toothed or lobed, petioled. Scapes with scaly bracts ; the heads in a 

 fastigiate thyrsus or corymb. Flowers purplish or nearly white, fragrant. 



1. Nardosmia palmata. Hook. (Plate XLIX.) Sweet Coltsfoot. 



Leaves reniform or roundish-cordate, tomentose underneath, palmately 5 - 7-lobed ; the 

 segments coarsely toothed, often incised or somewhat lobed. — Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. \. p. 308; 

 DC. prodr. 5. p. 206 ; Torr. <Sf Gr. fl. N. Am. 2. p. 93. N. palmata, Hookeriana, and 

 speciosa, Nutt. in trans. Amer.phil. soc. (n. ser.) 7. p. 288. Tussilago palmata. Ait. Kew. 

 (ed. 1.) 3. p. 188. t. 11 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 531 ; Beck, hot. p. 199. 



Leaves (when the plant is in flower) 3—5 inches in diameter, much larger and smoothish 

 late in the season, variable in the divisions and toothing. Scape stoat, 6-12 inches high, 

 clothed with numerous naked sheathing scales. Heads in a corymbose thyrsus. 



Swamps near Saratoga {Dr. Steele ; Prof. Hitchcock). Fl. May. This plant has not 

 recently been found in the locality here given, which is the only one for this rare species 

 known in the State. It has been found in Fairhaven, Vermont, within a few miles of the 

 boundary of New- York. 



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