COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 201 



simple, of equal capillary bristles. Perennial herbs, with mostly wand-like 

 stems and nearly sessile stem-leaves, never heart-shaped. Heads small, racemed 

 or clustered : flowers both of the disk and ray (except No. 2) yellow. (Name 

 from solido, to join, or make whole, in allusion to its reputed vulnerary quali- 

 ties.) Flowering Aug. - Oct. 



$ 1. CHRYSASTRUM, Torr. & Gr. Scales of the much imbricated rigid in- 

 volucre with abruptly spreading herbaceous tips : heads in clusters or glomerate ra- 

 cemes disposed in a dense somewhat leafy and interrupted wand-like compound spike. 



1. S. squarrosa, Muhl. Stem stout (2 -5 high), hairy above; leaves 

 large, oblong, or the lower spatulate-oval and tapering into a margined petiole, 

 serrate, veiny; disk-flowers 16-24, the rays 12-16. Rocky wooded hills, 

 Maine and W. Vermont to Penn., and the mountains of Virginia. 



5 2. VIRGAtlREA, Tourn. Scales of the involucre destitute of herbaceous tips : 

 rays mostly fewer than the disk-flowers : heads all more or less pedicelled. 



* Heads in dose clusters or short clustered racemes in the axils of the feather-veined 



leaves. (Rays 3 -6.) 



2. S. bicolor, L. Hoary or grayish with soft hairs ; stem mostly simple ; 

 leaves oblong or elliptical-lanceolate, acute at both ends, or the lower oval and 

 tapering into a petiole, slightly serrate ; clusters or short racemes from the axils of 

 the upper leaves, forming an interrupted spike or crowded panicle ; rays small, 

 cream-color or nearly white. Var. c6NCOLOR has the rays yellow. Dry copses 

 and banks, common : the var. in Pennsylvania and westward. 



3. S. latifolia, L. Smooth or nearly so, stem angled, zigzag, simple or 

 paniculate-branched (l-3 high) ; leaves broadly ovate or oval, very strongly and 

 sharply serrate, conspicuously pointed at both ends (thin, 3' -6' long); heads in 

 very short axillary sessile clusters, or somewhat prolonged at the end of the 

 branches. Moist shaded banks, in rich soil ; common northward, and along 

 the mountains. 



4. S. CcCSia, L. Smooth; stem terete, mostly glaucous, at length much 

 branched and diffuse; leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, 

 sessile ; heads in very short axillary clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled 

 on the branches. Moist rich woodlands ; common. Heads rather smaller than 

 in the lasL 



* * Racemes terminal, erect, either somewhat simple and wand-like, or compound and 



panicled, not one-sided : leaves feather-veined. (Not maritime.) 

 Heads small : leaves nearly entire, except the lowermost. 



5. S. vil'gata, Michx. Very smooth throughout; stem strict and simple^ 

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

 late-oblong leaves, which are gradually reduced upwards to mere bracts ; the 

 lowest oblong-spatulate, all thickish and smooth ; heads crowded in a very narrow 

 compound spicate receme; rays 5-7. Damp pine barrens, New Jersey to Vir- 

 ginia and southward. 



6. S. pllberilla, Nutt. Stem (l-3 high, simple or branched) and 

 panicle very minutely hoary ; stem-leaves lanceolate, acute, tapering to the base, 

 smooth ish; the lower wedge-lanceolate and sparingly toothed; heads very uu- 



