248 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



with sharp salient teeth, large (lower 3-4' long), all but the uppermost abruptly 

 contracted into long and margined petioles; heads large (5-6" long), many- 

 flowered, crowded in an oblong or wand-like raceme or contracted panicle (2 - 

 18' long); scales loose and thin, long, lanceolate, taper-pointed; rays 8-10, 

 elongated ; achenes smooth. (S. thyrsoidea, E. Mey.) Wooded sides of 

 mountains, N. Maine to N. Y. (south to the Catskills), shore of L. Superior, 

 and northward. Very near a European form of S. Virgaurea. 



11. S. Virgatirea, Linn. An extremely variable and confused species 

 in the Old World, represented in North America by 



Var. alpina, Bigel. Dwarf (1-8' high), with few (\-12) pretty large 

 heads (3-4" long, becoming smaller as they increase in number); leaves 

 thickish, mostly smooth, spatulate or obovate, mostly obtuse, finely serrate or 

 nearly entire, the uppermost lanceolate ; heads few in a terminal cluster or 

 subsolitary in the upper axils ; scales lanceolate, acute or acutish ; rays about 

 12. Alpine summits of Maine, N. H., and N. Y., and shore of L. Superior. 



12. S. hiimilis, Pursh. Low (6-12' high) and smooth, bearing several 

 or numerous loosely thyrsoid smaller heads, which, with the peduncles, etc., 

 are mostly somewhat glutinous ; scales obtuse ; rays 6-8, short ; upper leaves 

 lanceolate to linear, entire, the lower becoming spatulate and sparingly serrate. 

 (S. Virgaurea, var. humilis, Gray.) Rocky banks, W. Vt., along the Great 

 Lakes, and northward ; also on islands in the Susquehanna, near Lancaster, 

 and at the Falls of the Potomac. At the base of the White Mountains, on 

 gravelly banks, occurs a form with the minutely pubescent stout stem 1-2 

 high, the leaves larger, broader, and coarsely toothed, and the heads very 

 numerous in an ample compound raceme ; rays occasionally almost white. 



Var. Gillmani, Gray. Larger (2 high), rigid, with compound ample 



panicle and laciniately toothed leaves. Sand-hills of the lake-shores, N. Mich. 



-- H- - Heads small or middle-sized (large in n. 13 and 17), panicled or some' 



times thyrsoidal, not in a terminal corymbiform cyme ; not alpine. 



M- Leaves veiify, not 3-ribbed, but sometimes obscurely triple-nerved. 



= 1. Heads commonly large; leaves thickish, very smooth, entire, elongated. 



13. S. sempervirens, L. Smooth and stout (1-8 high); leaves lan- 

 ceolate, slightly clasping, or the lower ones lanceolate-oblong, obscurely triple- 

 nerved ; racemes short, in an open or contracted panicle. Salt marshes, or 

 rocks on the shore, Maine to Va. Heads showy; the golden rays 7-10. 

 Varies, in less brackish swamps, with thinner elongated linear-lanceolate leaves, 

 tapering to each end, and more erect racemes in a narrower panicle. 



= 2. Heads small, in a narrow virgate or thyrsoid panicle ; scales thin, acute: 

 leaves nearly entire. 



14. S. Stricta, Ait. Very smooth throughout ; stem strict and simple, wand- 

 like (2 -4 high), slender, beset with small and entire appressed lanceolate- 

 oblong thickish leaves, gradually reduced upward to mere bracts , the lowest 

 oblong-spatulate ; heads crowded in a very narrow compound spicate raceme ; 

 rays 5-7. (S. virgata, Michx.) Damp pine barrens, N. J. and southward. 



15. S. puberula, Nutt. Stem (1 -3 high, simple or branched) and pan- 

 icle minutely hoary ; stem-leaves lanceolate, acute, tapering to the base smoothish ; 

 the lower wedge-lanceolate and sparingly toothed, heads very numerous and 



