MiKANiA. COMPOSITE. 331 



Stem 3-6 feet or more in length, branching, striate. Leaves mostly about 2^ inches long, 

 somewhat triangular in the outline, tapering above into a long slender point, sprinkled on both 

 sides with very minute resinous particles. Flowers in numerous compound cymose panicles. 

 Involucral scales acute. Corolla purplish white, or pale flesh-color. 



Moist shady thickets, particularly along rivers ; rather common. August - SepteTnber. 



Subtribe 2. Tussilagine/E, Less. Heads with the flowers dissimilctr or somewhat diacious 

 {white, purplish, or sometimes yellow) ; the pistillate one either ligjilate or tubular. 



5. NARDOSMIA. Cass, in diet. sc. nat. 34. p. 186 ; Endl. gen. 2285. 



SWEET COLTSFOOT. 



[ From the Greek, nardos, spikenard, and osme, odor.] 



Heads many-flowered, somewhat dioecious. Sterile Pl. Flowers of the ray in a single 

 series, pistillate, ligulate ; of the disk numerous, perfect but infertile, with the corolla 

 tubular. Fertile Pl. Flowers of the ray in several series, pistillate, mostly ligulate ; 

 those of the disk few. Scales of tlie involucre in a single series, equal to or shorter than 

 the flower. Receptacle flat, naked. Achenia somewhat terete, smooth. Pappus capillary, 

 shorter and less copious in the sterile than in the fertile plant. — Perennial herbs. Leaves 

 radical, cordate, toothed or lobed, petioled. Scapes with scaly bracts ; the heads in a 

 fastigiatc thyrsus or corymb. Flowers purplish or nearly wliite, fragtant. 



1. Nardosmia palmata. Hook. (Plate XLIX.) Sweet Coltsfoot. 



Leaives reniform or roundish-cordate, tomentose underneath, paimately 5 - 7-lobed ; the 

 segments coarsely toothed, often incised or somewhat lobed. — Hook. fl. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 308 ; 

 DC. prodr. 5. p. 206 ; Torr. 4- Gr. fl. N. Am. 2. p. 93. N. palmala, Hookeriana, and 

 speciosa, Nutt. in trans. Amer.phil. soc. (n. ser.) 7. p. 288. Tussilago palmala. Ait. Kew. 

 (ed. 1.) 3. p. 188. t.U; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 531 ; Beck, hot. p. 199. 



Leaves (when the plant is in flower) 3 - 5 inches in diameter, much larger and smoothish 

 late in tiie season, variable in the divisions and toothing. Scape stout, 0-12 inches high, 

 clothed with numerous naked sheathing scales. Heads in a corymbose thyrsus. 



Swamps near Saratoga (Dr. Steele; Prof. Hitchcock). Fl. May. This plant has not 

 recently been found in the locality here given, which is the only one for tiiis rare species 

 known in tiic State. It hae been found in Fairhavcn, Vermont, within a lew miles of the 

 Iwundary of New-York. 



42* 



