52 COMPOSITE. 



= Pappus paleaceous-aristiform : leaves opposite. 



14. CARPHOCH.3STE. Heads 4-6-flowered. Involucre cylindrical ; the bracts acumi- 

 nate, rather few. Receptacle small, naked. Corolla narrow and long, hypocraterif orm ; limb 

 5-parted into slender linear-lanceolate lobes. Akenes slender, barely puberulent. Pappus 

 of long linear-subulate erose-denticulate scarious palese, the thickened costa continued into a 

 barbellulate scabrous awn ; and with 1 to 5 small nearly nerveless muticous palese. 



= = Pappus of numerous capillary or stouter bristles, from plumose to barbellulate-sea- 

 brous : anther-tips emarginate or retuse : leaves alternate. 



15. LIATRIS. Heads 4-many-flowered. Involucre spirally imbricate. Receptacle naked. 

 Corolla narrow, with gradually dilated throat and elongated-lanceolate or linear spreading 

 lobes. Akenes slender or tapering from apex to base, pubescent. Pappus about a single 

 series of firm and mostly equal bristles, from plumose to barbellate. Herbs, with heads in a 

 terminal reversed spike or raceme, sometimes becoming paniculate. 



1 6. GARBERIA. Heads about 5-flowered. Involucre imbricate in 5 nearly vertical ranks 

 (3 or 4 in each rank) of somewhat herbaceous acute bracts. Receptacle small, naked. 

 Corollas with slender tube, abruptly cyathiform-ampliate throat, and lanceolate spreading 

 lobes. Akenes, &c. of Liatris. Pappus copious, in two or more series of slender barbellate- 

 scabrous bristles, the outer smaller and shorter. Broad-leaved shrub, with heads corymbosely 

 cymose. 



1 7. CARPHEPHORUS. Heads many-flowered. Involucre campanulate ; the imbricated 

 bracts all appressed. Receptacle chaffy ; the chaff subtending the outer flowers, and mostly 

 shorter than they, thin, deciduous with the fruit. Corolla-lobes ovate or short-lanceolate. 

 Akenes of Liatris. Pappus of one or more series of barbellate or plumose bristles. Herbs, 

 with heads corymbosely cymose. 



++ ++ Little-imbricated involucre of bracts nearly all equal in length: receptacle plane,, 

 naked : corolla narrow, with short-ovate or oblong lobes : leaves broad, obscurely or not 

 at all punctate: perennial herbs, fibrous-rooted from a small caudex. 



18. TRILISA. Heads 5-1 0-flowered. Pappus of rather rigid minutely barbellate bristles, 

 nearly in a single series. Leaves entire ; cauline sessile. Cymules paniculate or somewhat 

 cymose. 



Tribe III. ASTEROIDE^E. Heads either heterogamous and radiate, the ligulate ray- 

 flowers feminine or rarely neutral, or homogamous with the flowers all hermaphrodite 

 and tubular, or rarely the female flowers with filiform corolla and no ligule, or in Bac- 

 charis dioecious and the female corollas all filiform. Receptacle seldom paleaceous. 

 Corolla of the hermaphrodite flowers regularly 5-lobed, rarely 4-lobed (obscurely pal- 

 mate in Lessingia). Anthers obtuse and entire or barely emarginate at base. Style- 

 branches of hermaphrodite flowers flattened, conspicuously margined by the stigmatic 

 lines, and extended into a hispid or papillose (sometimes very short) appendage. 

 Pappus various, or sometimes none. Leaves mostly alternate. Disk-flowers usually 

 yellow. — Tribe of nearly 100 genera, the largest being Aster and Solidago. The 

 characters of the subtribes fail in a few instances, either through absence of the rays, 

 or as to their color. 



Subtribe I. Homochrome.e. Disk wholly of hermaphrodite flowers, of the same color 

 as the ray when that is present, mastly yellow : these corollas tubular with more or 

 less ampliate throat and 4-5-lobed limb. Receptacle not chaffy, flat or merely con- 

 vex. Involucre closely imbricated, mostly in several series. (Flowers white in most 

 species of Lessingia : rays often white in Pentachceta and in one Solidago.) 

 # Pappus none, or coroniform or paleaceous, or squamellate, or somewhat setose only in 

 infertile disk-flowers : heads radiate : involucral bracts coriaceous or chartaceous, some- 

 times with herbaceous or greenish tips, the outer successively shorter. (See also Penta- 

 chceta. The four following genera are very close. ) 



19. GYMNOSPERMA. Heads several-flowered. Involucre ovoid or oblong; its bracts 

 obtuse, concave. Receptacle small. Ligules very small, not surpassing the disk-corollas. 

 Akenes oblong, slightly compressed, 4-5-costate, glabrous, destitute of pappus. Heads very 

 small and numerous, in glomerate terminal cymes. 



