THE THISTLK FAMILY. 53, 



sessile leaves are rather distinct, while the lower ones, spatulate-oblong, 

 taper into margined petioles. Quite as early in the season as April and as 

 late as into June it blows, mostly by the margins of ponds through pine- 

 barrens. 



H. aiituimiale, swamp sunflower, yellow star, or sneezewccd, is ihc com- 

 mon, abundant species which we all recognise by its round, compact disk of 

 yellow flowers and its few, drooping and three-cleft rays. On slender pe- 

 duncles these heads are borne and in a way much branched as a corymb. 

 The leaves are oblong, or ovate-lanceolate, and the stem shows, as narrow 

 wings, their decurrent bases. This one is dreaded as an obnoxious weed. 



SWEET QAILLARDIA. 



Gdillardia hinccolata. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle. Yellow and purple. Sweet. Florida to Snutli dir- .May-Si-pteinitt. 



olina and west iviird. 



Flower-heads: large ; solitary ; terminal at the ends of the branches and com- 

 posed of both tubular and radiate flowers. Involucre: with scales imbricated in 

 two or three rows. Rays: eight to twelve, yellow with reddish veins, wcdj^c- 

 shaped, deeply three-lobed. Diskflo7vers: perfect; al)undant ; i)urple ; their corol- 

 las five-toothed. Leaves : alternate ; spatulate or narrowly lanceolate, sessile, 

 bluntly pointed at the apex, entire, or the lower ones occasionally distantly serrate, 

 minutely ciliate. Stems: one to three feet high, with long slender ascending 

 branches; slightly pubescent. 



In the dry pine-barrens, where so much that is beautiful in the plant world 

 congregates, is where the sw'eet gaillardia loves best to grow. It is the 

 most generally knowm species of the south, but occurs perhaps more abun- 

 dantly in the«\vest, where, like others of the genus, it is called blanket-tlower. 

 Sometimes its flower-heads grow on branches so widely spread that they 

 peep out unexpectedly through the undergrowth, several of them appearing 

 as though they could hardly belong to the same plant. 



LEOPARD'S BANE. 



Arnica acaiilis. 



FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 



Thistle. Yellow. Scentless. Florida to Pennsylvania. April, M.iy. 



Flower-heads : showy; growing on long peduncles hractcd at the base in a ter- 

 minal corymb and composed of both tubular and radiate flowers. Koys : oblong; 

 minutely three-toothed. Involucre : campanulate, with lanceolate, appresscil 

 bracts. Leaves : those about the base tufted, spreading, oval, entire, (»r sparingly 

 serrate, three to seven-ribbed, rough and hairy on both sides. StcHt /<-</tv/; op|K>- 

 site; oblong, sessile. Stent: one to three feet high; erect; simple or sparingly 

 branched ; glandular-hirsute. 



This, another of the golden-rayed flowers, lives its day in low woods or 



