326 COMPOSITE. Brachyactis. 



22. BRACHYACTIS, Ledeb. 



Head many-flowered, heteroganious ; the rays very numerous and oecuj-iying 

 more than one series, fertile : ligules small and very slender or almost wanting. 

 Involucre loosely imbricated in few series of herbaceous scales, or the innermost 

 somewhat scarious. Receptacle flat, naked. Style-appendages lanceolate. Akenes 

 more or less compressed. Pappus simple, of copious fine and soft capillary bristles. 

 — Ours are annual and nearly glabrous herbs, with narrow and entire somewhat 

 succulent alternate leaves, minutely ciliate towards their base, and paniculate or 

 racemose heads ; the rays when developed purple or rose-color. — Benth. in Hook. 

 Ic. PI. t. 1106, & Gen. PL ii. 279 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 647. 



1. B. frondosa, Gray, 1. c. A span to a foot or so high, sometimes spreading 

 on the ground, sometimes upright : leaves spatulate-linear, about an inch long, the 

 uppermost passing into the rather broad and obtuse herbaceous scales of the invo- 

 lucre : heads hemispherical, 4 lines long : rays with exserted ligule when well 

 developed a line long, linear, much longer than its style : akenes narrow, appressed- 

 pubescent. — B. ciliata, var. carnosula, Benth. 1. c. Tripolium frondosum, Nntt. 

 Aster frondosus, Torr. & Gray. A. angustus, Gray, PL Wright., &c. ; Eaton, Bot. 

 King Exp. 144. 



Borders of boiling spring, Sonora Pass, in the Sierra Nevada, Bolander ; thence to N. Nevada, 

 S. Idaho, and New Mexico. 



B. ciliata, Ledeb., found east of the Eocky Mountains and far north, also in Siberia, has 

 narrow linear leaves, linear and acute scales of the involucre, and ligule a mere rudiment, much 

 shorter than the pappus and the style. It is Tripolium angustum, Lindl., and Aster angustus, 

 Torr. & Gray, &c. 



23. ERIGERON, Linn. Fleabane. 



Heads many-flowered, heterogamous ; the rays fertile, very numerous and com- 

 monly occupying more than one series (in one or two species occasionally wanting) ; 

 the ligules narrow, commonly elongated, in the last section very short and incon- 

 spicuous. Involucre hemispherical or sometimes campanulate, of numerous and 

 narrow rather firm and not foliaceous nor green-tipped scales, which are little imbri- 

 cated and hardly unequal. Receptacle flat, rarely convex, naked. Corolla of the 

 disk-flowers narrow, 5-toothed, sometimes 4 toothed. Style-appendages mostly short 

 and broad, obtuse. Akenes small, flat, and with only marginal ribs, rarely 1-2- 

 nerved on the face (especially in the ray-flowers). Pappus rather scanty, i. e. of a 

 single series of capillary rather fragile bristles, with or most commonly without an 

 external series of short bristles, these occasionally united into a crown or ring. — 

 Herbs, with alternate leaves, and heads terminating the stem or branches ; the rays 

 violet-purple or white ; the disk yellow, often changing to purplish. 



A large genus, widely dispersed over the world, especially the northern hemisphere, passing on 

 the one hand into Aster, from which it is chiefly distinguished by a simpler involucre and more 

 scanty and fragile pappus, and by more numerous and narrower rays ; while on the other hand a 

 peculiar section, with short and often minute rays, passes into Conyza. 



§ 1. Perennial (or No. 12 perhaps biennial). 



* Rays inconspicuous, but exserted, short, filiform, extremely numerous : heads some- 

 what racemed, small : pappus simptle. 



1. B. armeriaefolium, Turcz. Sparsely more or less hirsute with spreading 

 bristly hairs : stems clustered on the small rootstock, a span to a foot high, leafy : 



