COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 195 



to narrowly oblong and from ^ to f the length of the corolla. From Mon- 

 tana to New Mexico and westward. 



Var. alpina, Gray. Dwarf, 3 to 5 inches high, consisting of a rosette or 

 thick tuft of leaves with very approximate divisions, and naked or scapiform 

 stems, bearing mostly solitary heads, surmounting the subterranean branches 

 of a multicipital perennial caudex or rootstock. Synopt. Fl. i. 341. Alpine 

 region of the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming, California, and north to 

 Washington Territory. 



54. ACTINELLA, Pers., Nutt. 



Low mostly herbaceous plants : with punctate and often resinous-atomifer- 

 ous, aromatic herbage : leaves all alternate and narrow or with narrow lobes : 

 the heads of yellow flowers commonly slender-pedunculate. 



1 . Involucre of numerous herbaceous or nearly membranous nearly equal and 

 similar bracts, distinct to thz base: heads mostly solitary on long or scapiform 

 peduncles, rarely sessile in the cluster of leaves. 



* Leaves mostly quite entire, all on the crowns of the caudex, which bear a simple 



scapiform peduncle (or none): involucre villous-lanate : scales of the pappus 

 usually produced at apex into an awn. 



1. A. scaposa, Nutt. Loosely villous and glabrate, rather sparsely cespitose, 

 the branches of the caudex being slender and often ascending : scape a span 

 to afoot high, occasionally leafy along the base: leaves linear to lanceolate or 

 some of the earlier ones spatulate, not rarely laciniate-lobed. From Texas 

 and New Mexico, but extending into Colorado under the foUowing form : 



Var. linearis, Nutt. Leaves all narrowly linear and entire, more rigid. 



2. A. acaulis, Nutt. Densely cespitose, the branches of the caudex short, 

 thick, and crowded, cancscently villous or sericeous, sometimes more naked : 

 leaves thickish, all entire, from spatulate to nearly linear, commonly short, 

 \ inch to 2 inches long, densely crowded on the caudex : scape % inch to 6 

 inches high: rays 3 to 5 inches long (rarely wanting). Mountains and the 

 bordering plains and hills, Dakota to Montana, and south to New Mexico and 

 Arizona. 



Var. glabra, Gray. Leaves green, spatulate-linear, from sparingly villous 

 or glabrate to nearly glabrous, even to the base and axils. Man. 363. Rocky 

 hills and bluffs, Wyoming to New Mexico and Utah. 



3. A. depressa, Torr. & Gray. Pulvinate-cespitose : leaves densely 

 crowded on the very thick dense branches of the caudex, spatulate-linear, 

 inch long, either sericeous-canescent or glabrate : head strictly sessile, im- 

 mersed among the lonq-villous bases of the leaves. PI. Fendl. ] 00. Mountains 

 of W. Colorado or E. Utah. 



* * Leaves all quite entire, crowded on the caude,; also scattered along the sim- 



ple or sparingly branched stems: peduncles slender: heads, etc., as in the last 

 group. 



4. A. leptoclada, Gray. A span or two high, slender, sparsely and 

 loosely silky-villoiis, glabrate, the linear leaves and lower part of the stems 

 not rarely glabrous. Pacif. R. Rep.iv. 107. New Mexico and S. W. Colo- 

 rado. 



