COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 209 



= = Plants mosthj in clumps or tufts, or from tnjied or creeping rootstocks. 



a. Stems mostly robust, generallij a foot to 3 or 5 fet high, bearing numerous 

 heads in a ci/me: raijs % to \2, conspicuous : lea ces from entire to dentate, none 

 really cordate nor irith permanent tomentum. None trulij alpine. 



12. 3. integerrimus, Nutt. Leaves oblong-lancenlate, or the radiral elon- 

 gated-oblong, (julte entire or denticulate; upper ones reduced aud Imict-like, 

 attenuate-subulate from a dilated base: heads nGXQrul, umbellatel'/ cymose, com- 

 mouly I inch high: involucral bracts narrow, acute or acnminato. — The 

 Dakotas to Wyoming and the Saskatchewan. 



13. 3. lugens, Txicliards. Lightly floccose-woolly when young, iu the 

 typical form early glabrate and bright green : stem 6 inches to 2 feet high, 

 few- aud small-leaved aud naked above, terminated by a cyme of several or 

 rather numerous heads : radical and lower cauline leaves spatulate, varying to 

 oval or oMong, either gradually or abruptly contracted at base into a winded or 

 margined short petiole, usually repand- or callous-denticulate ; upper cauline lan- 

 ceolate or reduced and bract-like : bracts of the involucre lanceolate, with 

 obtuse or acutish commonly blackish tips: rays 10 or 12, conspicuous. — In- 

 cludes var. Hookeri aud var. Pairyi. Through the whole Kocky Mountains to 

 New Mexico aud westward to California. 



Var. foliOSUS, Gray. Floccose wool usually persistent up to flowering, 

 and vestiges remaining to near maturity: stem seldom over a foot higii, 

 stouter, more leafy to near the inflorescence: leaves comparatively large, 

 oblong to broadly lanceolate : heads often very numerous and crowded in the 

 corymbiform cyme, thou narrower: tips of involucral bracts conspicuously 

 blackish. — Bot. Calif, i. 413. S. lugens, var. exaltatus, Eaton. Mountains of 

 Colorado and Utah. 



Var. exaltatus, Gray. Lightly floccose when young, and not rarely with 

 looser and more persistent scattered hairs : stem stout, 1 to 3 or even 4 or 5 

 feet high : leaves thickish ; radical louger-petioled, from spatulate-lanceolate 

 to obovate or ovate, the broader ones abrupt and sometimes even subcor- 

 date at base; cauline occasionally laciuiate-deutate : heads mostly numer- 

 ous in the cyme. — Loc. cit. .S". exaltatus, Nutt. Wet ground. British 

 Columbia and Idaho to California, extending within the western limits of 

 our range. 



b. Stems low, only 2 to 6 inches high, scapiform : leaves clustered on the rootstork 

 or caudex, entire or crenate ; those of the scape reduced to mere bracts. Chief y 

 alpine or subalpine. 



1. Leaves thick and coriaceous, tapering into a petiole, crowded on the multicipital 



caudex. 



14. S. wernerisefolius, Gray. Woolly and cancscent, tardily glabrate: 

 leaves quite entire, erect or ascending, from spatulate-linear (2 or 3 inches long, 

 including the petiole-like base) to elongated-oblong .and Rhort-|>etioled, the mar- 

 gins sometimes revolute: scape a span high, rather stout, Itearing 2 toS heads; 

 these 4 or .5 lines high : rays 10 or 12, oblong, 2 lines long, rarely few or want- 

 ing. — Proc. Am. Acad. xi.\. 54. S. aureus, var. werneriafolius, Gray. Moun- 

 tains of Colorado, alpine. 



U 



