528 THE THISTLE FAMILY. 



high, erect; simple, or branched, leafy ; smooth below, above pubescent with short 

 purplish hairs. 



This is indeed one of the very lovely inhabitants of low pine-barrens, and 

 it is to be regretted that even through its known range it is seen so seldom. 

 Until renamed by Dr. Small it was known as Marshallia angustifolia. 



M. trinervia^ broad-leaved Marshallia, another representative of this 

 beautiful genus, bears purplish flowers in rounded, many-flowered heads. 

 Its leaves are thin in texture, oval, or oval-lanceolate, three-nerved and with 

 the lower ones among them tapering into long, sheathing petioles. From 

 Mississippi to Virginia it flourishes in rather dry soil. 



M. obovata, the species which early in the spring begins to bloom through 

 dry pine-woods, suggests at a distance large, rounded heads of white clover 

 that have stretched upward a little above their usual height. About its 

 base spatulate leaves cluster thickly; while alternate, lanceolate ones, mostly 

 blunt at the apex, clothe the lower part of the stem. They are nerved, very 

 smooth and graceful. Only from Alabama and Florida to North Carolina 

 does its range extend. 



FLAVERIA. 



Flaveria linearis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle. Yelloiv. Scentless. Florida. September. 



Flcnver-heads: small ; growing densely in terminal corymbs, and composed of 

 tubular flowers, with usually one that is radiate and also fertile. Involucre : with 

 narrow, appressed, nearly equal bracts. Disk Jloivers: with their corollas five- 

 toothed. Pappus: none. Leaves: opposite, linear, pointed at the apex and sessile 

 or connate at the base; entire; smoothish, fleshy. Stem: one to two feet high, 

 erect or somewhat prostrate at the base; branching at the summit ; nearly smooth. 



Not very frequently do we meet with members of this small genus ; but 

 when we are so fortunate we are interested in the peculiarity of their heads 

 in bearing but one ray flower, or we think, perhaps, with the majority, that 

 it is the remaining one, while others have been blown away. On the south- 

 ern Keys and along the coast of Florida the plant grows, but nowhere is it 

 very common. The genus is possessed of a yellow pigment which has been 

 utilised in dyeing. 



POLYPTERIS. {Flale CLXXV.) 

 Polypteris integrifblia. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle. White or purplish. Sweet. Florida to Georgia. July-Septeinher. 



Floiuer-heads : numerous, composed of tubular flowers enclosed in an obconic 

 involucre, with two rows of bracts, which are membranous and slightly coloured at 

 their summits. Flcncers : purplish ; perfect; tubular, with deeply five-parted limb. 



