400 THE KINDS OF PLANTS 



auricled at base, dentate. Perennial, in low or marshy grounds or along 

 streams. Late summer. 



L. spicita, Lam. Erect smoothish stems, 1-3 ft., sparingly leafy, the 

 terminal raceme with linear, small bracts: leaves oblong, upper small and 

 narrow: flowers small, pale blue: calyx-lobes not auricled at base, entire. 

 Dry, sandy soil. 



L. inflata, Linn. Indian tobacco. Erect, 9-12 in., rather hairy, branching: 

 leaves ovate, toothed: flowers small, /^-in. long, pale blue, in loose, racemes, 

 leaf y-braeted : capsules inflated, large. Common in fields: juice purgent- 

 poisonous. 



LL COMPOSITE. Composite or Sunflower Family. 



Mostly herbs, many of them very large, very various in foliage: 

 flowers small, densely packed into an involucrate head, 5-merous: 

 the corolla of the outer ones often developed into long rays: stamens 

 5, the anthers united around the 2 styles: fruit dry and 1-seeded, 

 indehiscent, usually crowned with a pappus which represents a calyx. 

 The largest of all phenogamous families, comprising about one-tenth 

 of all flowering plants, — about 800 genera and 11,000 to 12,000 

 specie^. Common composites are sunflower, aster, goldenrod, bone- 

 set, dahlia, chrysanthemum, marigold, compass plant, 

 dandelion, lettuce. 



A. Head with all flowers strap-shaped (with rays) and 

 perfect: juice milky: leaves alternate. 

 B. Flower heads terminal on leafless, hollow stalk 



from radical leaves 1. Tarazacnm 



BB. Flower-heads terminal on leafy stalks: leaves 



parallel-veined 2. Tragopogoti 



BBB. Flower-heads in corymbs or clusters. 



c. Heads never yellow (usually blue or white): 



pappus of blunt scales* 3. Cichorium 



cc. Heads usually yellow (in one case blue), 

 u. Akeues beaked: pappus copious, white, 

 soft, hair-like : leaves sometimes bristly 



or prickly edged 4. Lactuca 



DD. Akenes not beaked. 



E. Pappus soft, white: leaves usually aur- 

 icled and clasping at base, and 



prickly on edges and under ribs 5. Sonchus 



EE. Pappus stiff, brownish, leaves not spiny. 6. Hieracium 

 AA. Heads with tubular and mostly perfect disk flowers, 

 the rays, if any, formed of the outer strap-shaped 

 and imperfect flowers: in cultivated species, all 

 the flowers may become strap-shaped (head 

 "double "): juice not milky. 



