132 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



11. Solidago. Heads few- or several-, rarely many-flowered ; mostly radiate, small, com- 



monly in racemiform or spiciform clusters, sometimes fastigiate-cymose or in a thyrsus. 

 Involucre narrow : its bracts mostly not herbaceous-tipped. Akenes terete or angu- 

 late, 5 to 12-nerved or costate. Pappus of equal elongated bristles. 



* * Disk of hermaphrodite and mostly fertile flowers ; their corollas mostly yellow : the ray 



not yellow, occasionally wanting: receptacle naked, flat or barely convex. 

 *- Pappus a single series of long awns or of coarse and rigid bristles, or in the conspicuous 



ray chaffy. 



12. Townsendia. Involucre broad, many-flowered, imbricated : the bracts lanceolate, 



with scarious margins and tips, outer usually shorter and inner more membranaceous. 

 Receptacle broad. Style-appendages lanceolate. Akenes obovate or oblong, much 

 compressed, and with thickish margins, those of the ray sometimes triangular. Awns 

 or bristles of the pappus scabrous, 

 i- H- Pappus of numerous capillary bristles, with or without a short outer series. 



13. Aster. Involucre from hemispherical to campanulate, sometimes oblong or turblnate, 



imbricated in several or few series of unequal bracts, mostly in part herbaceous. 

 Rays numerous, not very narrow. Style-appendages from slender-subulate to ovate- 

 acute, commonly lanceolate. Akenes mostly compressed, 2 to 10-nerved, and the 

 pappus mostly simple and copious, rarely distinctly double. Leafy-stemmed herbs, 

 the greater part perennials. 



14. Erigeron. Differs from Aster in the more naked-pedunculate heads, simpler involucre 



of narrow and erect .equal bracts, which are never coriaceous, nor foliaceous or with 

 distinct herbaceous tips, narrower and usually very numerous rays often occupying 

 more than one series, very short and roundish style-appendages, small 2-nerved akenes, 

 and more scanty or fragile pappus, in many with a conspicuous short outer series. 

 - -i- +- Corolla of the numerous female flowers reduced to a filiform or short and narrow 

 tube, wholly destitute of ligule. 



15. Conyza. Heads small, many-flowered. Bracts of the campanulate involucre narrow, 



in 1 to 3 series. Female flowers much more numerous than the hermaphrodite ; their 

 filiform or slender tubular corolla truncate or 2 to 4-toothed at the apex. Pappus a sin- 

 gle series of soft capillary bristles, sometimes an added outer series of short bristles. 



* * * Heads discoid and unisexual : corolla of the fertile flowers filiform : pappus of capil- 



lary bristles. 



16. Baccliaris. Heads completely dioecious, many-flowered. Involucre regularly imbri- 



cated. Receptacle mostly flat and naked, rarely chaffy. Flowers of the male heads 

 with tubular-funnelform 5-cleft corolla : the female with corolla reduced to a slender 

 truncate or minutely toothed tube. Akenes 5 to 10-costate. Pappus of the male 

 flowers a series of scabrous and often tortuous bristles : of the fertile flowers of 

 usually more numerous and fine bristles, and often elongated in fruit. Shrubby or 

 herbaceous. 



Tribe IV. INULOIDE^E. Female flowers ligulate or filiform. Style-branches fili- 

 form or flattish. Pappus capillary or none. Involucre commonly dry or scarious. 

 Ours do not have conspicuous rays, and are all floccose-woolly herbs. 



* Involucre of few scarious bracts : receptacle chaffy ; a bract subtending each female 



flower or akene : anthers sometimes only acutely sagittate or auriculate : the short style 

 or style-branches not truncate. 



17. Evax. Akenes from obcompressed to terete, sometimes minutely papillose or puberu- 



lent. Bracts of the female flowers from scarious to chartaceous. Hermaphrodite 

 flowers sometimes fertile, destitute of pappus. Receptacle from barely convex to 

 subulate. 



* * Involucre of numerous more or less scarious bracts which are often colored or petaloid 



at the summit : receptacle not chaffy : anther-tails slender : style or style-branches 

 mostly truncate. 



18. Antennaria. Heads dioecious, many-flowered. Involucre imbricated in many series. 



Male flowers with mostly undivided style and a rather scanty pappus of clavellate 



