276 COMPOSITE. Helianthus. 



H. mollis, Lam. Canescent throughout : stems 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, when young 

 villous, in age often hirsute or hispid, simple and with solitary or few rather large heads, or 

 branched above and more floriferous : leaves ovate-lanceolate or ovate with a cordate closely 

 sessile or a clasping base, attenuate-acute or acuminate, 3 to 5 inches long, whitened with a 

 soft pubescence, or the upper face becoming greener and scabrous : involucre two-thirds inch 

 high, villous or sericeous: rays 15 to 25, an inch or more long. — Diet. iii. 85 (1789) ; IJC. 

 Prodr. V. 587; Torr. & Gray, 1. c, not "Willd., &c. H. canesceiis, Jlichx. Fl. ii. 140. 

 H. pubescens, Vahl, Symb. ii. 92 (1791); Willd. Spec. iii. 2240; Ell. Sk. ii. 418; Hook. 

 Comp. Bot. Mag. i. 98. — Dry barrens, Ohio to Iowa and south to W. Georgia and Texas. 

 Well-marked species, but passes into a greener or less pubescent and somewhat scabrous 

 variety. 



^_ ^_ Soft-villous rather than tomentose (varying to merely pubescent) as to the lower face of 



the mostly alternate ample leaves, but tlie tall stem villous hirsute or even hispid : heads ratlier 



large: involucre loose and long: disk grayish: the corolla-lobes as well as the tips of the chaff 



externally hirsute ! 



H. tomentoSUS, Micux. Stems stout, 4 to 9 feet high, branching : leaves thinnish, ample 



(the larger cauline a foot long), from ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acuminate at both ends, 



mostly somewhat petioled, sparingly serrate, upper face scabrous : heads nearly inch high 



and broad : bracts of the involucre linear-lanceolate and long-attenuate into almost filiform 



tips, externally hirsute, especially the margins, squarrose-spreading, often much surpassing 



the disk, outermost sometimes large and foliaceous : rays pale yellow, an inch or more long. 



— Fl. ii. 141 ; EU. Sk. ii. 424 ; Torr..& Gray, 1. c. H. pjtbescens, Bot. Eeg. t. 524, but not that 



of Hort. Kew., &c. H. sqiiarrosus, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 307. H. spathulatus. 



Ell. Sk. ii. 421, a form with mostly opposite leaves and less prolonged involucral bracts. — 



Moist woods, Illinois ? and Virginia to Georgia and jVlabaraa, most common along the 



mountains, in the lower country with leaves less pubescent beneath. 



-1^ -1— -1— Leaves mostly scabrous both sides (in one sometimes soft tomentose-canescent beneath), 

 the upper disposed to be alternale and not triplinerved, mostly petiolate and not broad: heads 

 middle-sized. 



-H- Atlantic species : involucre loose or squarrose ; its bracts linear-subulate or gradually attenuate 

 from a narrowish base to a slender point, all nearly of the same length, equalling or surpassing 

 the dull yellow disk: all producing slender creeping rootstocks and also forming one or more 

 tleshy thicltened roots (like lap-roots) at base of stem. 



'H. grosse-serratus, M.iETENS. Stem very smooth and glabrous, commonly glaucous, 6 to 

 10 feet high, bearing numerous rather cymosely disposed and short-peduncled heads: leaves 

 (not rarely some even of the uppermost opposite) slender-petioled, thinnish, oblong-lanceolate 

 or narrower, or some of the cauline almost deltoid-lanceolate, gradually acuminate, sharply 

 serrate (sometimes with long salient teeth), or upper merely denticulate, slightly scabrous 

 above, whitish and minutely tomentulose or soft-puberulent beneath ; larger cauline com- 

 monly 8 to 10 inches and the petiole an inch or two long: heads fully half-inch high, and 

 deep yellow oblong rays over an inch long : bracts of the involucre mostly slender. — Sel. 

 Sem. Hort. Lovan., & Linn. xiv. Suppl. 133; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 326. — Dry plains and 

 prairies, Ohio to Dakota, Missouri, and Texas. Eastward the smaller-leaved forms seem to 

 pass into //. qiijaiiteus. 



Var. hypoleiicus. Leaves almost silvery-canescenf with fine and dense soft tomcn- 

 tum, the larger with either cuneate or truncate base. — Texas, Drummond, Lindhcdmer, 

 Wright. (Var. y, Torr. & Gray, in part.) 



. giganteUS, L. Stem hispidulous or scabrous, or below smooth, 3 to 10 feet high, com- 

 monly one or more of the roots becoming thick and tnlicr-like; the larger plants br.tnching 

 above, licaring scattered heads: leaves lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, green and more or 

 less scabrous Ijoth sides, tapering to base and summit, short-petioled or subscssile, minutely 

 serrate or denticulate, occasionally nearly entire, commonly only 3 to 5 inclies long: heads 

 of the preceding or .smaller : r.ays pale yellow, barely inch long. — Spec. ii. 905 ; Ait. Kew. 

 iii. 249; Willd. Spec. iii. 2242; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 325, excl. ,8. H. altissiiwis, 

 L. Spec. ed. 2, ii. 1278 ; .larq. Hort. Vind. t. 162. H. i/h/as, Miclix. Fl. ii. 141. A low and 

 mainly northern form is H. tnbernsns, Parry in Owen Hop. Minnesota Surv. 614, and H. sub- 

 tuberosum, Bonrgci.'iu in herb. Hook., " the Indian Potato of the .\ssiniboinc tribe," the so-called 

 "edilde tubers" (which were also long ago noted by Douglas) being tuber-like thickened 



