COMPOSITE. (COMI'OSITE FAMILY.) lio 



7. GRINDELIA, Will.l. r.rM-PLANT. 



Herbs of coarse habit; with sessile or partly clasping and usually ser- 

 rate rigid leaves, and rather large heads of yelhnv fhnvers tcnniiiating the 

 branches; the narrow rays numerous, occasionally wanting. Heads more or 

 less viscid, especially bef )re blooming, but tlie herbage glahrous (in ours). 



* Ake7ies squarely truncate and even at the summit^ not tuothcd : jxtpjius-awiis 



2 or 3. 



1. G. squarrosa, Duual, Commonly only a foot or two high aud 

 branched from tlie base: leaves rigid ; cauline from spatulate- to linear-oblong 

 aud with half-clasping base, acutely and often spinulosely serrate or denticu- 

 late ; sometimes radical and even cauline laciniate-jjinnatifid : involucre strongly 

 squarrose with the spreading and recurving slKjrt-filiform tij)s of the bracts: 

 outer akeues commonly corky-thickened and with broad truncate summit, 

 those toward the centre narrower aud thinner-walled. — On the jdaius, from 

 the Saskatchewan to Texas aud westward to the Sierra Nevada. 



Var. nuda, Gray. Rays wanting. — With the radiate form in Colorado 

 aud Xew Mexico. 



* * Akenes narrow, excisely truncate or bidentate at summit: pappus aicns 

 viosdy 2. 



2. G. nana, Nutt. Rather low and slender, 6 to 30 inches high, the 

 larger plants corymbosely and freely branched above : leaves thinnish, lanceo 

 late and linear, or the lower spatulate, entire or spinulose serrate : ]lead^ 

 small : bracts of the involucre with slender and squarrose soon re volute tijis 

 as in the last : rays 16 to 30. — From N. W. Wyoming to Oregon and Wash- 

 ington ; replacing G. squarrosa in the Northwest, rthwest. 



8. CHRYSOPSIS, Nutt. Goldex Aster. 



Herbs, with pubescence from hispid to silky, leaves entire or few-toothed, 

 yellow flowers in middle-sized heads terminating the stem aud branches. 

 Our single species includes a multitude of forms, the more marked of which 

 are given as varieties. 



1. C. villosa, Nutt. A foot or two high : leaves from o])long to lanceo- 

 late, rarely few-toothed, usually cinereous or cancscently strigose or hirsute 

 and sparsely hispid along the margins and midrib, an inch or two long: heads 

 mostly terminating leafy branches, sometimes rather clustered, nakotl at base 

 or leafy- bracteate : involucre campanulate, 4 or 5 lines high ; its bracts com- 

 monly strigulose-canescent, sometimes almost smooth, acute: akenes oblong- 

 obovate, villous : outer pappus of chaffy bristles — On open ground from 

 the Saskatchewan to Alabama and westward across the continent. 



Var. hispida. Gray. Small and low, with hirsute and his])id pubescence, 

 not canesccnt : heads particularly small : involucre not canoscent. sometime.*? 

 glabrous. — Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 6;'). Saskatchewan to W. Tcx-o-s and 

 Arizona. 



Var. discoidea, Gray. Heads destitute of rays : involucre somewliat 

 canesceut : otherwise nearly as the last. — Synopt. Fl. i. 123. Cauous, W. Mod 

 tana, Watson. 



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