DIPLOPAPPUS LINARIIFOLIUS. 
~ SANDPAPER STAR-WORT 
NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSITE. 
DIPLOPAPPUS LINARIIFOLIUS, Hooker.—Stem straight, roughish; branches one-flowered, fasti- 
giate; scales imbricate, carinate, as long as the disk; leaves linear, entire, one-veined, 
mucronate, carinate, rough, rigid, those of the branches recurved. Stems sub-simple, pur- 
plish, about one foot high. Leaves numerous, obtuse, with a small mucronate point, 
shining above. Branchlets near the top, leafy, each with one rather large and showy, 
violet-colored head. (Wood’s Class-Book of Botany. See also Gray’s Manual of Botany . 
of the Northern United States, and Chapman's /ora of the Southern United States.) 
Wai LARGE number of the composite or asteraceous plants 
: of our country have a somewhat coarse foliage or habit 
of growth, with which the present elegant species is in strik- 
ing contrast. In some parts of the world, the Cape of Good 
Hope especially, there are many with such a slender and pleas-. 
ing habit as this; and indeed a first glance at our species by 
one familiar with the vegetation of those distant parts of the 
world would create the impression, in the absence of positive 
knowledge, that it was an exotic plant. Indeed; there are species 
of this same genus, Diplopappus, native to the Cape of Good 
Hope as well as to the United States. These relationships with 
the Flora of such distant parts of the world are always of great 
interest to the student of botanical geography. The species, 
however, are not very numerous there or here. Even allowing 
for some which may perhaps rightfully belong to other genera, 
there may not be many over a couple of dozen of species in all. 
It was originally classed with Asver; and in fact there is very 
little beyond the general habit and appearance to distinguish it. 
The “Treasury of Botany” tells us the genus is “very near Aster, 
and only differing in the nature of the pappus, which is double, the 
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