COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 265 



single row of capillary bristles, with minuter ones intermixed, or with a dis- 

 tinct short outer pappus of little bristles or chaffy scales. Herbs, with entire 

 or toothed and generally sessile leaves, and solitary or corymbed naked-pedun- 

 culate heads. Disk yellow ; ray white or purple. (Name from $p, spring, and 

 ylpoov, an old man, suggested by the hoariness of some vernal species.) 



1. (L3BN6TUS. Rays inconspicuous, in several rows, scarcely longer than 

 the pappus ; pappus simple ; annuals. 



1. E. Canadensis, L. (HORSE-WEED. BUTTER-WEED.) Bristly-hairy; 

 stem erect, wand-like (1-5 high) ; leaves linear, mostly entire, the radical cut- 

 lobed ; heads very numerous and small, cylindrical, panicled. Waste places ; 

 a common weed, now widely diffused over the world. July - Oct. Ligule 

 of the ray-flowers much shorter than the tube, white. 



2. E. divaricatUS, Michx. Diffuse and decumbent (3' -1 high); leaves 

 linear or awl-shaped, entire ; heads loosely corymbed ; rays purple ; otherwise 

 like n. 1. Ind. to Minn., and southward. 



2. TRIMORPHJEA. Like 1, but a series of filiform rayless pistillate flow- 

 ers within the outer row of ray-flowers ; biennial or sometimes perennial. 



3. E. acris, L. Hirsute-pubescent or smoothish; stem erect (10- 20' 

 high) ; leaves lanceolate or the lower spatulate-oblong, entire ; heads several 

 or rather numerous, racemose or at length corymbose, nearly hemispherical 

 (4 -5" long), hirsute; rays purplish or bluish, equalling or a little exceeding 

 the copious pappus. Lower St. Lawrence, across the continent and north- 

 ward. The var. DRCEBACHENSIS, Blytt, more glabrous and with the green 

 involucre nearly or quite naked, occurs on the shores of L. Superior. (Eu.) 



3. ERIGERON proper. Rays elongated (short in a form of n. 5), crowded 

 in one or more rows. 



# Annuals (or sometimes biennial), leafy-stemmed and branching ; pappus double, 

 the outer a crown of minute scales, the inner of deciduous fragile bristles, 

 usually wanting in the ray. 



4. E. animus, Pers. (DAISY FLEABANE. SWEET SCABIOUS.) Stem 

 stout (3-5 high), branched, beset with spreading hairs ; leaves coarsely and 

 sharply toothed ; the lowest ovate, tapering into a margined petiole, the upper 

 ovate-lanceolate, acute and entire at both ends ; heads corymbed ; rays white, 

 tinged with purple, not twice the length of the bristly involucre. Fields and 

 waste places ; a very common weed. June - Aug. (Nat. in Eu.) 



5. E. strigdsus, Muhl. (DAISY FLEABANE.) Stem panicled-corym- 

 bose at the summit, roughish like the leaves with minute appressed hairs, or 

 almost smooth ; leaves entire or nearly so, the upper lanceolate, scattered, the 

 lowest oblong or spatulate, tapering into a slender petiole ; rays white, twice 

 the length of the minutely hairy involucre. Fields, etc., common. June- 

 Aug. Stem smaller and more simple than the last, with smaller heads but 

 longer rays. A form with the rays minute, scarcely exceeding the involucre, 

 occurs in S. New England. 



* * Leaf y -stemmed perennials ; pappus simple (double in n. 6). 



6. E. glabelms, Nutt. Stem (6 -15' high) stout, hairy above, the leaf- 

 less summit bearing 1-7 large head* ; leaves nearly glabrous, except the 



