COMPOSITE. (composite FAMILY.) 223 



of flesh-colored flowers. (Name of <rK\rip6s, hard, and Xen-i'r, a scale, from the 

 pappus.) 



1 . S. verticill&ta, Cass. — In water : pine barrens, New Jersey and 

 southward. Aug. 



4. lilATHIS, Schreb. Button Snakeroot. Blazing-Stab. 



Head several - many-flowered : flowers perfect. Scales of the involucre im- 

 bricated, appressed. Keceptacle naked. Corolla 5-lobed. Achenia slender, 

 tapering to the base, about 10-ribbed. Pappus of 15 -40 capillary bristles, 

 which are manifestly plumose, or only barbellate. — Perennial herbs, often 

 resinous-dotted, with rigid alternate entire leaves (these sometimes twisted so 

 as to become vertical), and heads of handsome rose-purple flowers, spicate, 

 racemose, or panicled-cymose, appearing late in summer or in autumn. (Deri- 

 vation of the name unknown.) 



§ 1. Stem usually wand-like and simple, from a globular or roundish corm or tuber 

 {impregnated with resinous matter), very leafy: leaves narrow or grass-like, 1 - 

 5-nerved: heads spicate or racemed: involucre well imbricated: lobes of the 

 corolla long and slender, 



* Pappus very plumose ; scales of the 5-flowered involucre with ovate or lanceolate 



spreading petal-like (purple or sometimes white) tips, exceeding the flowers. 



1. L. 61egans, Willd. Stem (3° -5° high) and involucre hairy; leaves 

 short and spreading; spike or raceme compact (1° long). — Barren soil, Vir- 

 ginia and southward. 



* » Pappus very plumose : scales of the cylindrical many-flowered involucre imbri- 



cated in many rows, the tips rigid, not petal-like : corolla hairy iviihin. 



2. L. squarrbsa, Willd. (Blazino-Stak, &c.) Often hairy (l°-30 

 high); leaves linear, elongated; heads few (1' long) ; scales of the involucre 

 mostly with elongated and leaf-like spreading tips. — Dry soil, Pennsylvania to 

 Illinois and southward. 



3. L. eylindr^cea, Michx. Commonly smooth (6' -18' high); leaves 

 linear; heads few (J'-i' long) ; scales of the involucre with short and rounded ap- 

 pressed tips. — Dry open places, Niagara Palls to Wisconsin, and southwestward. 



« * * Pappus not obviously plumose to the naked eye : corolla smooth inside. 



4. L. SCari6sa, Willd. Stem stout (2°-5°high) pubescent or hoary; 

 leaves (smooth, rough, or pubescent) lanceolate ; the lowest ohlong-lanceolate or 

 obovate-oblong, tapering into a petiole ; heads few or many, large, 30 - 40-flow- 

 ered ; scales of the broad or depressed involucre obovate or spatulate, very numerous, 

 with dry and scarious often colored tips or margins. — Dry soil, New England to 

 Minnesota, and southward. — Widely variable : heads 1 ' or less in diameter. 



5. L. pil6sa, Willd. Beset with long scattered hairs ; stem stout ; leaves 

 linear or linear-lanceolate, elongated; heads few, 10-1.5-flowered; scales of the 

 top-shaped or bell-shaped involucre slightly margined, the outer narrowly oblong, very 

 obtuse, the innermost linear. — Mountains of Virginia and southward : rare and 

 obscure. Perhaps a remarkable state of the next ; but the flowers as large 

 as in the preceding. 



