288 COMPOSITE. Verhesina. 



broadly ovate to oblong, thickish, serrate, triplinerred : heads hemispherical, three-fourths 

 inch high : bracts of the involucre oval or oblong, obtuse, in 2 or 3 series : rays about 12, 

 oval or oblong, sometimes inch long, rarely wanting : akenes obovate, smooth, with either 

 broad or narrow wings, and only minute callous teeth for pappus, or some of the inner with 

 short awns : receptacle low. — Actinomeris Wrightii, Gray, PI. Fendl. 85, & PI. Lindh. ii. 229 ; 

 Eothr. in Wheeler Rep. vi. 162, t. 8. — Rocky ground, W. Texas to Arizona, Wright, 

 Thurber, &c. (Adj. Mex.) 



V. W^arei, Gray, 1. c. Scabrous, somewhat hispidulous : stem slender, a foot or two high, 

 simple, leafless at the peduncle-like summit, which bears one or two small heads : leaves 

 4 or 5 pairs, narrowlj' oblong, obtuse at both ends, obscurely serrulate, reticulate-veiny, lucid; 

 the upper very small : bracts of the involucre oblong-lanceolate, shorter than the ovoid- 

 conical fruiting disk : " rays 3 or 4," small : akenes oblong, with narrow or rather broad 

 wings, connected by an obscure epigynous border : pappus of 2 minute teeth or none. — 

 Actinomeris paucijiora, Nutt. in Am. jour. Sci. v. 301, & (§ Achceta) Tran,s. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 vii. 364 ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. But there is a V. paucijiora of Hemsley in Mexico. — Florida, 

 in low pine barrens near the coast. Ware, Chapman, 



V. nudicaulis, Gray, 1. c. Scabrous-hirsute and hispidulous, 2 or 3 feet high; the naked 

 summit of the stem or branches bearing a few mostly pedunculate small heads : leaves in 

 numerous pairs, dull green, elliptical-oblong, obtuse at both ends or the apex acutish, acutely 

 and irregularly serrate, loosely pinnately veined ,;J^racts of the involucre oblong-linear, short : 

 disk in fruit merely convex: rays 7 to 12, iWlar, an inch or more long, the head only 

 quarter-inch wide : wings of the akene often one or both wanting, sometimes rather conspic- 

 uous : pappus 2-aristellate or obsolete. — Helianthus ? aristatus, Ell. Sk. ii. 428. Actiiiumeris 

 nudicaulis, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Boc. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. — Dry sandy woods, Georgia, 

 Alabama, and Florida. 



# # # Stems winged by decurrence of the more or less broad sessile leaves. Leaves in our spe- 

 cies only pinnately-veined : stems 2 or 3 feet high, simple or with sparing flowering branches. 



V. heteroph^Ua, Gray, 1. c. Hispidulous-scabrous, below somewhat hirsute : lower leaves 

 nearly all opposite, approximate, oblong or oval, obtuse, sometimes acute, minutely serrate 

 (1 to 3 inches long), indistinctly veiny, decurrent into wings ; those toward the naked sum- 

 mit and on the slender flowering branches small, lanceolate, soon reduced to linear bracts : 

 heads somewhat paniculate, barely half-inch high in fruit, then with strongly convex disk : 

 bracts of the involucre barely in 2 series, small, lanceolate ; those of the receptacle very 

 similar, rigid: rays 5 to 10, linear: akenes obovate, narrowly winged, 2-aristellate. — Acti- 

 nomeris heterophylla, Chapm. in Bot. Gazette, iii. 6. — Dry pine barrens, E. Florida, Chapman, 

 Garber, Curtiss. Related to the preceding. 



V. helianthoides, Michx. Pubescent, stouter : stem usually winged up to the short pedun- 

 cles: leaves alternate, or rarely some of the lower opposite, ovate-lanceolate or ovate, 

 acuminate, serrate, transversely veiny-scabrous above, cauescently soft-pubescent beneath, 

 at least when young : heads few, fully half-inch high ; the disk and receptacle at maturitv 

 either strongly convex or conical: involucre of 2 or 3 series of erect lanceolate bracts': 

 rays 8 to 15, inch or more long: akenes somewhat pubescent or scabrous, rather broadly 

 winged, 2-aristellate. — Fl. ii. 134 ; Pursh, Fl. ii. 565. Actinomeris helianthoides, Nutt. Gen. 

 ii. 181 ; Ell. 8k. ii. 413; DC. Prodr. v. 575, & vii. 290 (vars. Niittallii & EUiuttii); Torr. & 

 Gray, I.e. A. oppositifolia, DC. Prodr. vii I.e., not of Fresenius ^ —Prairies and open 

 woods, Ohio to Iowa, Georgia, and Texas ; first coll. by ilichaux. 



§ 3. XiMEN^siA. Heads (solitary or scattered) broad : involucre of spreading 

 linear and foliaoeous equal bracts: disk and receptacle merely convex: rays 

 numerous and conspicuous, usually fertile: akenes flat; the awns not hooked: 

 root annual. — Xlmenesia, Cav. 



V. encelioides, Benth. & Hook. A foot or two high, freely branching, pale and cinereous 

 or siinietimes canescent with fine and soft appressed pnbescence : leaves mostly alternate, 

 and the upper face green, from ovate or cordate to deltoid-lanoenlate, ^-ario^sly serrate or 

 laciniate-dentate, some with nearly naked, most with winged petioles, and these commonly 

 with auriculate-dilated appendage at base : heads largo, the disk three-fourths inch in dianl- 

 eter: rays 12 to 15, inch long, deeply 3-cleft at summit: akenes obovate, mostly broadly 



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