258 COMPOSITjE. SpUantlus. 



93. SPILANTHES, Jacq. (SttiXos, a spot or stain, ai'^os, flower ; name 

 ordinarily without application.) — Usually spreading or creeping herbs (mainly 

 tropical) ; with opposite and merely serrate leaves, rather small heads on pe- 

 duncles terminating the stem and branches, the rays when present yellow or 

 white, the disk-flowers yellow : herbage of some species acrid to the taste. Fl. 

 summer. — Jacq. Amer. t. 214, Hort. Vind. t. 135, & Ic. Rar. t. 584; Schreb. 

 Gen. 1266; DC. Prodr. v. 620. Spilanthus, L. Mant. 475; Gaartn. Fruct. ii. 

 t. 167. — Our species is of the section Acmella, DC. (Acmella, Pers. Syn. ii. 472), 

 having evident ligules. 



' S. repens, Michx. Perennial by the creeping base, slender, spreading or ascending, from 

 hirsute-pubescent to almost glabrous : stems slender, a foot or two long : leaves from lan- 

 ceolate to oblong-ovql^ an inch or two long, from sparsely denticulate to serrate, abruptly 

 or sometimes gradually contracted at base into a petiole : peduncles 2 to 4 inches long : 

 bracts of the involucre oblong-lanceolate, mostly obtuse: rays 8 to 12, yellow, ratlier shorter 

 than the obtusely ovoid disk • receptacle at length subulate-conical : akeues oblong, less 

 than a line long, not flat, most of them tuberculatc-roughened in age and minutely liispidu- 

 lous, the margins not more so than the sides : pappus none or occasionally one or two mi- 

 nute awns. — Fl. ii. 131 ; DC. Prodr. v. 623. S. repens & S. Nuttallii, Torr. & Gray, El. ii. 

 356. Anthemis repens, Walt. Car. 211; Pursh, Fl. ii. 562. Acmella repens, Pers. .Syn. 1. c. 

 A. repens & A. occiclentalis, Xutt. Gen. ii. 171. — Low or wet ground, S. Carolina to Florida, 

 Arkansas, and Texas. 



94. ECHINACEA, Moench. ('Bxtvo;, hedgehog, or sea-urchin, in allusion 

 to the spinescent bracts of the receptacle.) — Atlantic N. American perennial herlis ; 

 ■with thick and black roots of pungent taste (used in popular medicine under the 

 name of Black Sampson), rather stout erect stems, undivided somewhat nervose 

 leaves, the lower long-petiolod, and solitary large heads on long peduncles ter- 

 minating the stem and few branches ; in summer. Rays from flesh-color to 

 rose-purple or crimson, much elongating with age: disk purplish. — Meth. 591 ; 

 Cass. Diet. XXXV., xlvii., &c. ; DC. Prodr. v. 554, excl. sp. Mex. Brauneria, 

 Necker. HeliocJiroa, Raf. Neog. 1825, no. 35, &c. 



B. purptirea, Mcencii. Commonly smooth and glabrous, or the leaves hispidulous and 

 rough, sometimes the stem also hispid, 2 feet or more high : leaves ovate-lanceolate or the 

 lower ovate from a broad base, commonly denticulate or acutely serrate, most of them 

 abruptly contracted into a margined petiole, some of the middle occa.siouallv opposite; 

 lower often 3-5-pliuerved involucre well imbricated: ligules (rarelv almost white), at first 

 an inch long and broadish, in age often elongated to 2 inches or more. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 305, with varieties. E. purpurea & E. serotina, DC. Prodr. v. 554. Riidherlla purpurea, 

 L. Spec. ii. 907 (Catesb. Car. t. 50 ; Pluk. Aim. t. 21, &c.) ; Bot. Mag. t. 2 ; Sdikuhr, Handb. 

 t. 259; Bart. Fl. Am. Sept ii. t. 64. R. serotina. Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. t. 4, & Lodd. Cab. 

 t. 1539 (R. purpurea, var. serntinn, Nutt. Gen. ii. 178), the hirsute or hispid form, which is 

 R. Inspida, Hoffm., and R. specinsa. Link. Enum., ex DC. Hchorhron Limmana, elatior, 

 amaina, /areata, &c., Kaf. Neog, 1. c — Rich or deep soil, Virginia and Ohio to Illinois and 

 Louisiana. 



E. angustifolia, DC. Hispid, either sparsely or densely, a foot or two higli, mostlv sim- 

 ple: leaves from broadly lanceolate to nearly linear, entire, 3-nericd, all .attenuate at' base, 

 the lower into slender petioles; bracts of the involucre in only about 2 scries: Iieads and 

 flowers nearly of the prece(b-ng (the fruitin"- disk often an inch high), or sometimes verv 

 much smaller. — Prodr. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl, ii. 306; Hook. Bot. Mao-, t, 52S1 ; Sprague, 

 Wild Flowers of Amer, t. 25. E. paUi.la & E. sanqmnea. Nutt. in Tr.ans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 n. ser. vii. 354. Rmlhrrha pallida, Nutt. in Jour. Acad. Philad. vii. 77. — I'rairies and bar- 

 rens, Saskatchewan .and Nebraska to Texas, and east to Illinois, Tennessee, and Alabama; 

 m several forms; some too near tlie preceding. 



