788 coMPOSiTAE (composite family) 



4. C. gossypina (Michx.) Nutt. Biennial., densely lanate, the pubescence 

 becoming floccose ; leaves short-spatulate to oblong, rounded at tip, white-lanate ; 

 heads few, long-peduncled ; involucre woolly or becoming glabrate and merely 

 glandular. (C. pilosa Britton, not Nutt.) — Pine barrens, Va. to Fla. 



•«- -t- Stems hirsute to villous, the hairs persistent. 



5. C. villbsa Nutt. Hirsute and villous-pubescent ; stem corymbosely 

 branched, the branches terminated by single short-peduncled heads ; leaves 

 narrowly oblong., hoary with rough pubescence (as also the involucre), bristly- 

 ciliate toward the base ; achenes ■i-b-nerved ; outer pappus setulose-squamellate. 

 t^G. camporum Greene.) — Dry plains and prairies, Man. and Wise- to Ky., 

 westw. and southw. July-Sept. 



6. C. pilbsa Nutt, Annual, soft-hirsute or villous ; leaves oblong-lanceolate ; 

 involucre viscid; achenes 10-nerved; outer pappus chaffy and conspicuous. (0. 

 Nuttallii Britton.) — Open places, Kan., and southw. 



15. SOLIDAgO L. Golden-rod 



Heads few-many-f]owered, radiate ; the rays 1-16, pistillate. Bracts of the 

 involucre appressed, destitute of herbaceous tips (except nos. 1 and 2). Recep- 

 tacle small, not chaffy. Achenes many-ribbed, nearly terete ; pappus simple, 

 of equal capillary bristles. — Perennial herbs, with mostly wand-like stems and 

 sessile or nearly sessile never heart-shaped stem-leaves. Heads small, racemed 

 or clustered ; flowers both of the disk and ray yellow (cream-color in no. 6). 

 Closely related species tending to hybridize freely. (Name from solidare, to 

 join, or make whole, in allusion to reputed vulnerary qualities.) 



§ 1. VIRGAtJREA DC. Bays mostly fewer than the disk-fiowers ; heads all 

 more or less pediceled. 



* Bracts of the nmch imbricated and rigid involucre with abruptly spreading 

 herbaceous tips ; heads in clusters or glomerate racemes, disposed in a dense 

 somewhat leafy and interrupted wand-like compound spike. 



1. S. squarr5sa Muhl. Stem stout, 0.2-1.6 m. high, hairy above ; leaves 

 targe, oblong, or the lower spatulate-oval and tapering into a margined petiole., 

 serrate, veiny ; heads numerous ; bracts obtuse or acute ; disk-flowers 16-24, 

 the rays 12-16. —Rocky and wooded hills, N. B. to Ont., s. to Va. and O.; rare 

 southw. Aug.-early Oct. 



2. S. petiolaris Ait. Minutely hoary or downy ; stem strict, simple, 0.2-1 m. 

 high ; leaves small (1-7 dm. long), oval or oblong, mucronate, veiny, rough- 

 ciliolate, minutely puberulent, dull or slightly lustrous ; the upper entire and 

 abruptly very short-petioled, the lower often serrate and tapering to the base ; 

 heads few, in a wand-like raceme or panicle, on slender bracted pedicels ; rays 

 about 10, elongated ; bracts of the pubescent involucre lanceolate or linear-awl- 

 shaped, the outer loose and spreading, more or less foliaceous. — Dry woods, 

 s. w. 111. to Kan., N. C, and southw. Aug. -Oct. — The name is misleading, as 

 the leaves are hardly petioled. Var. Wardii (Britton) Fernald. Leaves firm 

 and strongly glutinous, somewhat lustrous. {S. Wardii Britton.) — Open rocky 

 or sandy ground. Mo. and Kan. to Tex. 



* * Involucral bracts without green tips and wholly appressed. 



-t- Heads small; the involucres 2-5 (rarely 6) mm. long, clustered along the 



stem in the axils of the feather-veined leaves, or the upper forming a thyrse. 



++ Achenes pubescent. 

 = Stem terete, mostly glaucous (the bloom easily rubbed off). 



3. S. cadsia L. Smooth ; at length much branched and diffuse ; leaves 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, serrate, pointed, sessile ; heads in very short 

 clusters, or somewhat racemose-panicled on the branches. — Deciduous woods, 

 s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and southw. Aug.-Oct. Var. axillaris (Pursh) Gray 



