WILD FLOWERS OF NEW YORK 285 



the upper leaves sometimes entire. Inflorescence consisting of many- 

 drooping heads, in loose clusters of few or several together. Heads with 

 seven to twelve whitish or pale yellowish ray flowers (no disk flowers), 

 surrounded by a pale green, narrow, smooth, cylindric involucre about 

 one-half of an inch long, becoming purplish when old, consisting of six to 

 eight principal bracts, eciualing the pappus in length, and a few small bracts 

 at the base of the involucre. Pappus light brown in color. 



In woods and thickets, Newfoundland to Pennsylvania, Indiana, 

 Delaware and Tennessee. Flowering from August to October. Not a 

 showy plant but rather odd in appearance and representative of a group 

 which in this State contains about half a dozen related species. 



Sunflower Family 



Compositae 



The Sunflower family comprises the largest group of flowering plants, 

 including in the flora of the whole world about one-tenth of the ki-iown 

 species, or some 12,000 in number. They are chiefly herbs in our region, 

 but in warmer parts of the world, shrubs and tree forms also occur. In New 

 York, about one-fifth of all plants which have rather conspicuous flowers, 

 and might in consequence be designated as wild flowers, belong to this 

 family. In this Memoir, over 50 species, or nearly one-eighth of the total 

 number of plants illustrated, belong to the Sunflower family, and the 

 number would be larger if it were not deemed unnecessary to illustrate all 

 of the many kinds of Goldenrods and Wild Asters. 



The chief characteristics of the family, which will aid considerably in 

 an understanding of the descriptions of the following species, is the crowding 

 together of the true flowers into heads. These floral heads, commonly 

 referred to as the " flower," namely, the Sunflower, the Daisy etc. are in 

 reality niade up of many small, individual flowers, in contrast to the single 

 flower of the rose or violet. The head is surrounded by an in-\-olucre, com- 

 posed of one to several series of bracts or scales, performing as a whole the 



