496 THE THISTLE FAMILY. 



BLUE STOKESIA. {Plate CLXIV.) 



Stokesia l&vis, 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle, Blue or Scentless. Louisiana^ Georgia Juneyjuly. 



purplish blue. and South Carolina. 



Floiuei'-heads : large, terminal, the central flowers all tubular, the marginal 

 ones radiant; the rays cleft at the summit. Involucre: bracted, rounded, the 

 outer scales with leaf-like bristly appendages ; the inner ones smaller, lanceolate. 

 Leaves: alternate ; lanceolate ; those from the base tapering into long, smooth 

 petioles, those on the stem sessile, the upper ones bristly at their bases ; entire. 

 Ste7n : one to one and one-half feet high, erect, slightly pubescent. 



Less coarse-looking and almost more beautiful than any other one of the 

 composites is the very rare blue Stokesia, which only in certain known locali- 

 ties through wet pine-barrens can readily be found. It stands rather alone, a 

 unique individual in the great order, for botanically it has no near relatives. 

 Its great toppling heads of flowers, frequently purely blue, remind us more 

 of some cultivated asters than wildings of remote places. An interesting 

 point in connection with the plant is the apparent gradation of its stem-leaves 

 into bracts as they approach the flowers. In looking at it one is confirmed 

 in the belief of the morphology of the foliage into the flower. In honour of 

 Sir Jonathan Stokes, an English botanist, the plant has been named. 



THOROUQHWORT. 



Eupatoriiim incaniatum. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle. Deep lavender. Scetitless. Texas and Florida Septetnber-October. 



to North Carolina. 



Flmver-heads : growing in numerous loose cymes at the ends of long axillary 

 shoots. Involucre: campanulate, short, with many lanceolate, or linear, pointed 

 bracts. Flozuers : all tulDular, regular, and but little longer than the bracts. 

 Corolla : five-toothed. Style-branches : exserted. Leaves : opposite with long 

 slender petioles broadly ovate, taper-pointed at the apex and squared, or cordate, 

 at the base, the margins outlined with blunt-pointed teeth ; thin ; somewhat 

 coarse. Stem : erect or reclining ; much branched, two to four feet high, leafy, 

 more or less pubescent. 



Of this large and buoyant genus of plants this one is a rather slender thing 

 and not at all well known. Its leaves are perhaps its chief feature of beauty, 

 for the flower-heads although very numerous are also very small. It hides 

 in the woods, where in rocky, rich soil it thrives best. 



Happily we all know Joe Pye weed and Boneset, two conspicuous Eupa- 

 toriums ; and through the likeness of others to them we are often able to 

 connect such individuals with the genus. 



E. pujpureinn, trumpet-weed, or as more familiarly called "Joe Pye," 

 grows to be one of the tallest and most conspicuous of the thistle family. 



