170 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



Var. mollis, Gray. Somewhat cinereous with a soft and short spreading 

 pubescence, a foot or two high, leafy to the top : leaves oblong-lanceolate : 

 cinereous pubescence of the involucre soft and spreading. Proc. Acad. 

 Philad 1863, 64. Mountains of Colorado. 

 - *-Low, rarely afoot high, conspicuously hispid or hirsute with spreading bristly 



hairs: leaves entire, narrow: involucre close: rays numerous, occasionally 



wanting: pappus conspicuously double. 

 M- Sparingly branched stems from the crown of a tap-root, more or less leaf;/ : 



heads middle-sized : disk ^ to ^ inch in diameter : involucre hispid : rays 50 



to 80, occasionally wanting in the second species. 



8. E. pumilus, Nutt. Radical and lower cauline leaves from spatulate- 

 linear to lanceolate, a line or two wide ; upper linear : rays white, 4 lines 

 long : outer pappus of sJiort bristles little or not at all thicker than the inner 

 ones and more or less intermixed with them. Dry plains, Dakota to Colo- 

 rado, and in the mountains to Utah. 



9. E. COncinnus, Torr. & Gray. Like the preceding, but usually with 

 more dense and shaggy hirsuteness and less rigid leaves : stems not rarely some- 

 what copiously branched : rays violet or blue, rarely white : outer pappus con- 

 spicuous and chaffy. Fl. ii. 174. In arid regions from New Mexico and 

 Arizona to Wyoming and British Columbia. 



Var. aphanactis, Gray. Discoid, the rays being nearly destitute of ligule 

 or wanting. Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 540. Colorado to Nevada and California. 

 *- -w- More branched and leafy, over a span high ; with smaller heads, fewer rays, 

 and somewhat naked involucre more imbricated. 



10. E. Brandegei, Gray. A very imperfectly known plant, green, 

 sparsely hispidulous-hirsute : radical leaves spat ulate-li near ; cauline linear 

 and small, or upper minute : bracts of involucre short-linear, almost naked : 

 rays 30 or more, white : outer pappus of coriaceous chaffy scales, which are 

 commonly confluent with the scanty bristles of the inner. Synopt. Fl. i. 

 Pt. 2. 210. Adobe plains, S. W. Colorado, on the borders of New Mexico, 

 Brandegee. 



H- - H- Dwarf, cespitose from a multicipital caudex, with monocephalous flower- 

 ing stems: radical leaves dissected: pappus simple. 



11. E. compositUS, Pursh. From hirsute to glabrate, with slender 

 margined petiole setose-ciliate : radical leaves much crowded on the crowns of 

 the caudex, usually 1 to 3-ternately parted into linear or short and narrow 

 spatulate lobes, the few on the erect flowering stems 3-lobed or entire and 

 linear : involucre 3 or 4 lines high, sparsely hirsute : rays from 40 to 60, not 

 very narrow, white, purple, or violet, mostly 3 or 4 lines long. Alpine re- 

 gions, from S. Colorado and California to British Columbia and northward. 



Var. discoideus, Gray. Rays wanting or abortive : head commonly 

 smaller. Am. Jour. Sci. n. xxxiii. 237. Same range as the type. 



Var. trifidus, Gray. Small blade of leaves simply 3 to 5-fid : the lobes 

 from oblong to obovate. Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 90. E. trifidus, Hook. 

 Mountains, N. Colorado to British Columbia. 



Var. pinnatisectus, Gray. Usually a large form : numerous violet- 

 purple rays 5 lines long : leaves pinnately parted into 9 to 1 1 linear and entire 

 or rarely 2 to 3-cleft divisions. Loc. cit. Mountains of Colorado. 



