COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 153 



smaller: bracts of the involucre closer, shorter, aud merely acute. Proc. 

 Am. A cad. xvii. 187. 



2. S. humilis, Pursh. Glabrous, disposed to be glutinous, bright green : 

 stems strict, leafy : upper leaves lanceolate to nearly linear, entire ; lower and 

 radical becoming spatulate with long attenuate base, sparingly appressed-ser- 

 rate above the middle : heads rather crowded in a narrow racemiform paniculate 

 simple or sparingly branched thyrsus: bracts of the involucre oblong-linear, obtuse. 

 S. Virgaurea, var. humilis, Gray, Man. In the mountains of New Mexico 

 and Colorado, and extending northward to the British possessions, where it 

 ranges eastward across the continent. 



Var. nana, Gray. A high alpine form, 2 to 5 inches high, with spatulate 

 to obovate leaves, and few heads in a close glomerule, or more numerous in a 

 spike-like thyrsus. Synopt. Fl. i. 148. S. Virgaurea, var. humilis, Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. viii. 389. S. Virgaurea, var. alpina, of Fl. Colorado and Wheeler's 

 Report. High mountains of Colorado and in the Cascades. 



* * Heads smaller, 2 or 3 (rarely 4) lines long, not in a terminal cyme, but m 

 paniculate or raceme-like clusters, which when well developed are collected in a 

 terminal compound panicle or panicles ; when the clusters are raceme-like and 

 spreading they are apt to be secund : stems branching only at summit. 



+- Neither alpine, canescently pubescent, nor the leaves triple-ribbed: leaves entire 



or little serrate. 



3. S. spectabilis, Gray. A foot or two high : heads numerous and 

 crowded in a narrow or compound and broader thyrsus : cauline leaves lanceo- 

 late, or the small uppermost becoming linear, acute ; lower and radical spatu- 

 late-lanceolate or oblong, acutish or obtuse, often an inch wide and obscurely 

 triple-ribbed ; radical rarely with a few serratures : iuvolucral bracts lanceolate 

 or broader, mostly obtuse: rays 8 to 15, small: akenes pubescent. Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xvii. 193. S. Guiradonis, var. spectabilis, Eaton. From the Eastern 

 slopes of the "Front Range" in Colorado to western slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada. 



4. S. speciosa, Nutt. Commonly 3 to G feet high and robust : leaves 

 thicker and generally ample, oval or oblong, rather abruptly narrowed into a 

 sessile base, or the larger into a winged petiole, often 4 to 6 inches long and 

 2 or 3 wide ; uppermost small and lanceolate or oblong ; primary veins spread- 

 ing and obscure: thyrsus narrow, composed of numerous short or rarely elon- 

 gated spiciform clusters, rigid, rather showy : heads 3 or 4 lines long : bracts of 

 the well-imbricated involucre of firm texture, narrowly oblong, very obtuse, 

 and with a greenish midnerve : rays conspicuous, 5 or 6 : akenes glabrous or 

 nearly so. Hardly extending into our range, but represented at its eastern 

 border by the 



Var. rigidiuscula, Torr. & Gray, which is not so tall, has smaller leaves, 

 the lower being spatulate or oblanceolate and only 2 to 4 inches long and 

 hardly an inch wide, the upper more rigid and rougher-edged, and the thyrsus 

 more simple. 



-t- *- Leaves more or less triple-ribbed, or with a pair of lateral veins continued 



parallel to the midrib. 

 *- Smooth and glabrous, at least as to the stem and bright green leaves ; in/lores- 



