COMPOSITAE (COxMPOSITE FAMILY) 817 



oblanceolate, wholly foliaceous ; rays pinkish, longer than the style. — Saline 

 soil, P. E. I.; Wyo. to N. Mex., and westw. July-Oct. Fig. 975. 



23. ERIGERON L. Fleabane 



Heads many-flowered, radiate, mostly flat or hemispherical ; the narrow rays 

 very numerous, pistillate. Involucral bracts narrow, equal, and little imbri- 

 cated, never coriaceous, neither foliaceous nor green-tipped. Receptacle flat or 

 convex, naked. Achenes flattened, usually pubescent and 2-nerved ; pappus 

 a single row of capillary bristles, with minuter ones intermixed, or with a dis- 

 tinct short outer pappus of little bristles or chaffy scales. — Herbs, with entire 

 or toothed and generally sessile leaves, and solitary or corymbed naked-pedun- 

 culate heads. Disk yellow ; rays wliite, pink, or purple. (The ancient name 

 presumably of a Senecio, from 9jp, spring, and yepu;^, an old man, suggested 

 by the hoariuess of some vernal species.) 



§ 1. EUERtGERON DC. Rays elongated (short in a form of no. 7), crowded 

 in one or more rows. 



* Leafy-stemmed perennials. 



-»- Fappus double. 



1. E. glab^llus Nutt. Stem 1.5-4 dm. high, stout, hairy above, the leafless 

 summit bearing 1-7 large heads ; leaves nearly glabrous, except the margins, 

 entire, the upper oblong-lanceolate and pointed, closely sessile or partly clasp- 

 ing, the lower spatulate and petioled ; rays more than 100, purple, more than 

 twice the length of the hoary-hispid involucre ; outer pappus of n)inute bristles. 

 (E. asper Nutt.) — Plains of n. Wise, Man., and westw. June-Sept. 



-t- -!- Pappus simple. 



++ Stems slender, densely tufted, very leafy ; leaves narrowly linear,, entire. 



2. E. hyssopifblius Michx. Slightly pubescent, 1-3 dm. high, from filiform 

 rootstocks ; branches prolonged into slender naked peduncles, bearing solitary 

 small heads ; rays 20-30, rose-purple to whitish. — Wet calcareous rocks, Nfd. 

 and Lab. to Mackenzie, s. to N. B., Me., Yt., and JVIich. June, July. 



++ -M. Stems stouter, not tufted; leaves broader, toothed. 



3. E. pulchellus Michx. (Robin's Plaktaix.) Hairy, producing offsets 

 from the base; stem simple, rather naked above, bearing few (1-9) large heads 

 on slender peduncles ; hasal leaves obovate and spatulate, sparingly toothed, the 

 cauline distant, lanceolate-oblong, partly clasping, entire ; rays (about 50) rather 

 broad, light bluish-purple. (E.^bellidifolius Muhl.) — Copses and moist banks, 

 s. Me. to Ont., Minn., and south w. Apr.-,June. 



4. E. philad^lphicus L. Hairy; stem leafy, corymbed, hearing several small 

 heads ; leaves thin, with a hroad midrib, oblong ; the upper smoothish, clasping 

 by a heart-shaped base, mostly entire ; the lowest spatulate, toothed ; rays 

 innumerable and very narrow, rose-purple or flesh-color. — Throughout, locally 

 common, generally in alluvial soil May-Aug. 



* * Perennial by rosulate offsets, with scape-like stems ; pappus simple. 



5. E. vernus (L.) T. & G. Glabrous ; leaves clustered at the base, oval or 

 spatulate; scape leafless, slender, 3-7 dm. high, bearing 5-12 small coiymbed 

 heads; rays white. (E. nudicaulis Michx.) — Low grounds, e. Va., and 

 southw. May. 



*** Annuals (or sometimes biennials), leafy-stemmed and branching ; pappus 

 double, the outer a croion of minute scales, the inn(r of deciduous fragile 

 bristles, usually wanting in the ray. 



6. E. ^nnuus (L.) Pers. (Daisy F., Swkkt Scabious.) Stem stout, 2-15 

 dm. high, branched, beset with spreading hairs; leaves coarsely and sharply 

 toothed; the lowest ovate, tapering into a margined petiole; the upper ovate- 



n,B^Tr^« MANUAL — 52 



