170 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



Var. mollis, Gray. Somewhat cinereous with a soft and short spreading 

 pubescence, a foot or two high, leafy to the top : leaves oblong-lanceolate : 

 cinereous pubescence of the involucre soft and spreading. — Proc. Acad. 

 Philad. 1863, 64. Mountains of Colorado. 

 ■*- ■*- Low, rarely afoot high, conspicuously hispid or hirsute with spreading bristly 



hairs: leaves entire, narrow: involucre close: rays numerous, occasionally 



wanting: pappus conspicuously double. 

 *+ Sparingly branched stems from the crown of a tap-root, more or less leafy : 



heads middle-sized: disk J to £ inch in diameter: involucre hispid: rays 50 



to 80, occasionally iranting in the second species. 



8. E. pumilus, Nutt. Radical and lower cauline leaves from spatulate- 

 linear to lanceolate, a line or two wide; upper linear: rays white, 4 lines 

 long : outer pappus of short bristles little or not at all thicker than the inner 

 ones and more or less intermixed with them. — Dry plains, the Dakotas to 

 Colorado, and in the mountains to Utah. 



9. E. concirmus, Torr. & Gray. Like the preceding, but usually with 

 more dense and shaggy hirsuteness and less rigid leaves : stems not rarely some- 

 what copiously branched : rays violet or blue, rarely white : outer pappus con- 

 spicuous and chaffy. — PI. ii. 174. In arid regions from New Mexico and 

 Arizona to Wyoming and British Columbia. 



Var. aphanaetis, Gray. Discoid, the rays being nearly destitute of ligule 

 or wanting. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 540. — Colorado to Nevada and California. 

 ++ ++ More branched and leafy, over a span high ; with smaller heads, fewer rays, 

 and somewhat naked involucre more imbricated. 



10. E. Brandegei, Gray. A very imperfectly known plant, green, 

 sparsely hispidulous-hirsute : radical leaves spatulate-linear ; cauline linear 

 and small, or upper minute : bracts of involucre short-linear, almost .naked : 

 rays 30 or more, white : outer pappus of coriaceous chaffy scales, which are 

 commonly confluent with the scanty bristles of the inner. — Synopt. PI. i. 

 Pt. 2. 210. Adobe plains, S. W. Colorado, on the borders of New Mexico, 

 Brandegee. 



+- ■<- -t- Dwarf, cespitose from a multicipital caudex, with monocephalous flower- 

 ing stems : radical leaves dissected : pappus simple. 



11. E. eompositus, Pursh. Prom hirsute to glabrate, with slender 

 margined petiole setose-ciliate : radical leaves much crowded on the crowns of 

 the caudex, usually 1 to 3-ternately parted into linear or short and narrow 

 spatulate lobes, the few on the erect flowering stems 3-lobed or entire and 

 linear : involucre 3 or 4 lines high, sparsely hirsute : rays from 40 to 60, not 

 very narrow, white, purple, or violet, mostly 3 or 4 lines long. — Alpine re- 

 gions, from S. Colorado and California to British Columbia and northward. 



"Var. diseoideus, Gray. Pays wanting or abortive : head commonly 

 smaller. — Am. Jour. Sci. n. xxxiii. 237. — Same range as the type. 



Var. trifldus, Gray. Small blade of leaves simply 3 to 5-fid : the lobes 

 from oblong to obovate. — Proc. Am. Acad. xvi. 90. E. trifidus, Hook. 

 Mountains, N. Colorado to British Columbia. 



Var. pinnatisectUS, Gray. Usually a large form : numerous violet- 

 purple rays 5 lines long : leaves pinuately parted into 9 to 1 1 linear and entire 

 or rarely 2 to 3-deft divisions. — Loc. cit. Mountains of Colorado. 



