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$9. VERNONIA NOVEBORACENSIS (L.) Michx. Fl. Bor. Am. 2: 
95. 1803 
Serratula noveboracensis L. Sp. Pl. 818. 1753. 
Serratula praealta 
Vernonia praealta Michx. £. ¢ 
Chrysocoma tomentosa Walt. Fl. Car. 196. 1788. 
Vernonia tomentosa Ell. Sk. 2: 288. 1824. 
Vernonia noveboracensis tomentosa Britton, Mem. Torrey Club 
5: 311. 1894. 
Stem erect, 10-20 dm. tall, oo or thinly pubescent ; ee 
lanceolate, 10-18 cm. long, 5 -4 cm. wide, acuminate, narrowed 
elow, sessile or short-petioled, ae serrate to nearly enure. 
glabrous or scabrellate above, puberulent or thinly tomentose be- 
neath, eopcly on the veinlets; ; inflorescence flattened, ie 1-3 
m. wide; heads sessile or cue gees 29-47- (usually 34-) 
flowered ; aa volucre campanulate, 6-7 mm. high; scales ei 
abruptly tapering to a long filiform tip; achenes nearly g oe 
4-4.5 mm. long; pappus purple or rarely tawny-purple, 6-7 m 
long. 
Type locality: ‘+in Noveboraco, Virginia, Carolina, Canada, 
Kamtschatca.” 
Distribution: Massachusetts to West Virginia and Mississippi, 
mostly near the coast. 
The number of synonyms under the species name indicates to 
some extent the uncertainty which has characterized the treatment 
of Vernonia noveboracensis during the past hundred years. There 
is scarcely one of the large species of the central, eastern, or western 
states that has not at some time been confused with it. The plate 
and careful description of Dillenius in the Hortus Elthamensis 
make it perfectly clear to what form the Linnaean name applies. 
But Linnaeus also recognized another of Dillenius’ species, Serva- 
tula praealta, differing from the type only in the shorter appendages 
of the involucral scales. The identity of this plant was in doubt 
for many years, until finally in 1829 Lessing showed its similarity 
to V. noveboracensis. 
Walter’s Chrysocoma tomentosa has been still more puzzling. 
His meagre description ‘‘herbacea, caule tripedali, foliis alternis 
lanceolatis dentatis subtus tomentosis,” shows no essential difference 
from V. xoveboracensés. Elliott, in transferring the species to the 
genus Vernonia, gave a fuller account, describing a plant with nar- 
