Verbesiita. 



COMPOSITiE. Og'y 



disk from flattish to low conical : awns of the pappus not hooked : ours all per- 

 ennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 11. 



# Akenes wholly wingless : receptacle nearly flat: flowers vellow, the ravs 1 to 5, lanceolate- 

 leaves opponte. 



m-Y. OCOidentalis, "^Valt. Green and minutely pubescent or glabrous 4 to 7 feet high with 

 erect narrowly 4-winged branches, leafy up to the short peduncles of the corymboselv panicu- 

 late open cymes : leaA es ovate and the uppermost oblong-lanceohite, acuminate, acutely ser- 

 rate, the larger about 8 inches long, contracted into a margined petiole : involucre olilong, 

 4 or 3 lines high: akenes obovate-oblong, pubescent. — Car. 213. V. Siegesbeckia Ali.hx 

 Fl. ii. 1.34 ; DC. Prodr. r. 616 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. .338. .ii,gesbeckia occider,talis,'-L. Spec. 

 11. 900, & PI. Gronov. 1 . Phwthusa, Cass. Diet. U. 476, & lix. 149; DC. Prodr. 1. c, but 

 there are no squamella;. Plmthusa Americana, Gartn. Fruct. ii. 425, t. 169, f. 3, hairs at 

 summit of akene exaggerated, and awns missing. P. borealis, Spreng.'svst. iii. 591. Core- 

 opsis alata, Pursh, Fl. ii. 567, therefore Actinomeris alata, Xutt. Gen.' 181. — Borders of 

 woods and banks, S. Penn. to Illinois and Florida. 



* * Akenes or most of them broadly winged at maturity, but variable : receptacle convex to con- 

 ical : flowers both of ray and disk white or whitish; the anthers blackish : rays .3 to o, obovate, 

 short: leaves alternate. ^t 



• V. Virglnioa, L. Minutely tomentoB&Bwscent or pubemlent, 3 to 6 feet high : stem or 

 brandies winged or wingless : leaves^Rn and glabrate or minutely hispidulous-scabrous 

 above, cinereous to cauescent beneafflfterate or the upper narrower, from denticulate to 

 coarsely serrate, contracted below iiito ^ winged petiole : heads small, 3 or 4 lines high, 

 crowded on the irregular branches of the compound paniculate naked cyme : bracts of the 

 involucre lanceolate, rather obtuse, erect, pubescent : awns of the pappius slender, sometimes 

 obsolete. — Spec. ii. 901 ; Walt. 1. e. ; Michx. 1. c. ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 359. V. pa- 

 niciilata, Poir. Diet. viii. 456. T". micropfera, DC. 1. c. ; akenes sometimes but not always 

 imperfectly winged. V. poli/cephala, DC. 1. c, rather robust form. V. villosn, Xutt. Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 370, a tomentose form. V. Texana,^t^k\ey in Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 

 45S. — Eich dry soil, Penn. ? and Illinois to Florida ancUfexas. (:Mex.) 



Var. laciniata. Leaves variously and irregular sinuate- or laciniate-lobed, rarely 

 almost to the midrib ; the principal lobes 3 to 5. — Sir-rjeahriJaa laciniata, Poir. Diet. vii. 158. 

 Va-besina laciniata, Xutt. Gen. ii. 170. V. sinuata. Ell. Sk. ii. 411 ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Grav, 

 1. c. — Along the coast, S. Carolina to Florida. 



§ 2. Pterophytox. Heads (solitary or scattered) comparatively broad : in- 

 volucre more or less imbricated, all or at least the inner bracts erect or appressed : 

 disk convex to oval and the akenes all erect in fruit ; the receptacle from convex 

 to conical : rays several to numerous, either neutral or styliferous (even in the 

 same species), but almost always infertile : akenes flat : awns of the pappus not 

 hooked, often obsolete or wanting : perennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xix. 12. Part of Pterophyton, Cass., & of Actinomeris, Xutt. 



# Stems wholly wingless and marginle=s: leaves long and linear, not decurrent: bracts of the in- 

 volucre narrow, the outer loose and disposed to become foliaceous. 



V. longifolia, Geat. Stems slender, smooth and glabrous, 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, 

 branching at summit and bearing several heads : leaves alternate or some 2-3-nate, sessile, 

 scabrous, reticulate-veiny and with prominent midrib, 4 to 9 inches long, quarter to half inch 

 wide : bead hemispherical, half-inch high, with flattish disk, often subtended by one or two 

 linear leaf -like bracts: involucral bracts linear: rays about 15, neutral, inch long: akenes 

 obovate, smooth, with narrow wing, a shallow notch, and no awns or rarely a rudimentary 

 one. — Proc. Am. x-Vcad. xix. 12. Actinomeris longifolia. Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 89. — Mountains 

 of S. Arizona, Wright, Rolhrock, &c. 



# * Stems wholly wingless: leaves ovate to oblong, sessile, not decurrent, mostly opposite: 

 bracts of the involucre broader and closer: rays not rarely styliferous. 



V. W riglltii, Gkat, 1. c. Scabrous and mostly hispidiilous : stems stout, 1 to 3 feet high, 

 somewhat branching, bearing few or solitary long-peduliculate showy heads : leaves from 



