COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 155 



= = Leaves obtuse or abruptly apiculate, firm or coriaceous: pubescence all close: 

 panicle mostly naked and compact : bracts of the involucre broadish and obtuse, 

 of firm texture: rays fewer and larger, golden yellow. 



9. S. nemoralis, Ait. Mostly low, with fine close soft or (in age) sca- 

 brous pubescence : leaves from spatulate-obovate to oblanceolate or linear ; 

 radical and lower cauline sparingly serrate : thyrsus and its compact racemiform 

 clusters secund, commonly recurved-spreading : bracts of the involucre oblong- 

 linear or narrower, obtuse: rays 5 to 9. From Arizona to Nevada and east- 

 ward across the continent. 



Var. incana, Gray. Dwarf, span to a foot high : leaves oval or oblong, 

 rigid, canescent, sometimes strongly serrate and sometimes mostly entire : 

 racemiform clusters erect or the lower spreading, collected in a dense oblong 

 or conical thyrsus. From the mountains of Colorado and Montana to 

 Dakota and Minnesota. 



10. S. nan a, Nutt. A span to a foot high, canescent with minute dense 

 puberulence, not scabrous in age : leaves mostly obovate or spatulate and entire, 

 small : heads broad, few or rather numerous in an oblong or corymbiform pani- 

 cle, not at all secund : bracts of the involucre oval or oblong, very obtuse: other- 

 wise nearly as S. nemoralis. S. pumila, of Fl. Colorado. From Wyoming 

 to N. Arizona and Nevada. 



* * * Heads in a compact and corymbiform thyrsus or cyme : radical leaves 



mostly long-petioled and with prominent midrib. 



- Leaves not 3-nerved or smooth: heads over 3Q-fiowered: rays 7 to 10, rather 



large. 



11. S. rigida, L. Somewhat cinereous with a short and dense, either soft 

 or scabrous pubescence : stem stout, 2 to 5 feet high : leaves rigid, obscurely 

 serrate or entire; radical and lowest cauline oval or oblong, rounded at both 

 ends or acute at base, 3 to 7 inches long ; upper cauline ovate-oblong, gradu- 

 ally smaller upward, with slightly clasping or decurrent base : clusters dense : 

 heads campanulate : involucral bracts broad : akenes turgid, 12 to 15-nerved. 

 From Colorado to the Saskatchewan and eastward. 



- H Leaves rigid, 3-nerved, smooth and glabrous : heads 5 to 8-Jlowered : rays 1 



to 3, short. 



12. S. pumila, Torr. & Gray. Dwarf, a span or more high, many- 

 stemmed from a woody cespitose caudex, glabrous throughout, punctate, 

 somewhat resinous : radical leaves 2 or 3 inches long : cyme glomerate-fas- 

 tigiate : heads narrowly oblong : iuvolucral bracts rigid, somewhat carinate, 

 and with small green tips : mature akenes flattish and 5-nerved. From Texas 

 through S. Colorado to Nevada and Idaho. 



2. Receptacle fimbrillate or pilose: rays very small, almost always more numer- 

 ous than the disk- flowers and never surpassing them in height: heads glomer- 

 ately and fasciculately cymose, small : leaves very numerous, all linear, entire, 

 1 to 5-nerved, sessile : akenes villous-pubescent. 



13. S. OCCidentalis, Nutt. Stems 2 to 6 feet high; the branches termi- 

 nated by small clusters of mostly pedicellate heads: leaves usually 3-nerved, 

 glabrous and smooth even on the midrib, and margins obscurely scabrous : bracts 



