COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 153 



smaller: bracts of the involucre closer, shorter, and merely acute. — Proc. 

 Am. Acad. 4 xvii. 187. 



2. S. humilis, Pursh. Glabrous, disposed to be glutinous, bright green 

 stems strict, leafy : upper leaves lanceolate to nearly linear, entire ; lower and 

 radical becoming spatulate with long attenuate base, sparingly appressed-ser- 

 rate above the middle : heads rather crowded in a narrow racemiform paniculate 

 simple or sparingly branched thyrsus : bracts of the involucre oblong-linear, obtuse. 

 — S. Virgaurea, var. humilis, Gray, Man. In the mountains of New Mexico 

 and Colorado, and extending northward to the British possessions, where it 

 ranges eastward across the continent. 



Var. nana, Gray. A high alpine form, 2 to 5 inches high, with spatulate 

 to obovate leaves, and few heads in a close glomerule, or more numerous in a 

 spike-like thyrsus. — Synopt. Fl. i. 148. 8. Virgaurea, var. humilis, Gray, Proc. 

 Am. Acad. viii. 389. S. Virgaurea, var. alpina, of Fl. Colorado and Wheeler's 

 Report. High mountains of Colorado and in the Cascades. 



* * Heads smaller, 2 or 3 (rarely 4) lines long, not in a terminal cyme, but in 

 paniculate or raceme-like clusters, which when well developed are collected in a 

 terminal compound panicle or panicles ; when the clusters are raceme-like and 

 spreading they are ajit to be secund : stems branching only at summit. 



■t- Neither alpine, canescently pubescent, nor the leaves triple-ribbed : leaves entire 



or Utile serrate. 



3. S. speCtabilis, Gray. A foot or two high : heads numerous and 

 crowded in a narrow or compound and broader thyrsus: cauline leaves lanceo- 

 late, or the small uppermost becoming linear, acute ; lower and radical spatu- 

 late-lanceolate or oblong, acutish or obtuse, often an inch wide and obscurely 

 triple-ribbed ; radical rarely with a few serratures : involucral bracts lanceolate 

 or broader, mostly obtuse: rays 8 to 15, small: akenes pubescent. — Proc. Am. 

 Acad. xvii. 193. S. Guiradonis, var. speclabihs, Eaton. From the Eastern 

 slopes of the "Front Range" in Colorado to western slopes of the Sierra 

 Nevada 



4. S. speciosa, Nutt. Commonly 3 to 6 feet high and robust : leares 

 thicker and generally ample, oval or oblong, rather abruptly narrowed into a 

 sessile base, or the larger into a winged petiole, often 4 to 6 inches long and 

 2 or 3 wide ; uppermost small and lanceolate or oblong ; primary veins spread- 

 ing and obscure ■ thyrsus narrow, composed of numerous short or rarely elon- 

 gated spic.iform clusters, rigid, rather showy: heads 3 or 4 lines long: bracts of 

 the well-imbricated involucre of firm texture, narrowly oblong, very obtuse, 

 and with a greenish midnerve: rays conspicuous, 5 or 6: akenes glabrous or 

 nearly so. — Hardly extending into our range, but represented at its eastern 

 border by the 



Var. rigldiuscula, Torr. & Gray, which is not so tall, has smaller leaves, 

 the lower being spatulate or oblanceolate and only 2 to 4 inches long and 

 hardly an inch wide, the upper more rigid and rougher-edged, and the thyrsus 

 more simple, 

 ■i- ■>- Leaves more or less triple-ribbed, or with a pair of lateral veins continued 



parallel to the midrib. 

 ** Smooth and glabrous, at least as to the stem and bright green leaves: in/tores- 



