Liatris. COMPOSITE. HI 



dense, cylindrical (5 to 18 inches long) : heads (4 to 6 lines long) all sessile : bracts of the 

 involucre 14 to 16, oblong or the inner narrower; the more or less scarious squarrose tips 

 purple or purplish, usually acute: pappus copious, minutely barbellate. — Fl. ii. 91 ; Pursh, 

 Fl. ii. 507 (excl. syn. Dill. & Walt. ?) ; Torr. & Gray, 1. l-. L. brachystachya, Nutt. in Jour. 

 Acad. Philad. vii. 72, a glabrous form. — Prairies, Illinois and Iowa to Arkansas and Texas. 

 Apparently this hybridizes with L. spicata : at least specimens occur which are intermediate 

 between the two species. 



+- -1— +- Heads from short-oblong to cylindraceous : bracts of the involucre all appressed, 

 -H- Obtuse and mostly rounded at the pointless apex. . 

 = Leaves narrowly linear, or the lowermost larger and broader ; upper ones gradually reduced to 

 linear-subulate bracts. 



L. spicata, Willd. Glabrous, or with some sparse hirsute pubescence : stem stout or tall, 

 usually 2 to 5 feet high, very leafy : heads 8-13- (sometimes 5-7-) flowered, half-inch long, 

 almost erect, closely sessile and numerous in a dense spike of a span to a foot or more in 

 length : involucre obtuse or rounded at base ; its bracts obscurely if at all glandular-punc- 

 tate, but not rarely glutinous ; the tips of the inner usually with narrow colored scarious 

 margin. — Sims, Bot. Mag. t. 1411; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 73 ; Torr. Fl. N. Y. 35, t. 47. Cirsium 

 tuberosum, &c, Dill. Elth. t. 72, fig. 83. Serratula spicata, L. Spec. ii. 819 (excl. syn. Gronov.) ; 

 Andr. Bot. Rep. t. 401. S. compta, Dryander in herb. Banks, cited by Pursh under the 

 next. Liatris macrostachya, Michx. Fl. ii. 91 ; Pursh, 1. c. L, resinosa, Nutt. Gen. ii. 131, a 

 small form with 5-flowered heads. L. sessilijlora, Bertol. Misc. v. 10, t. 2 (but our specimen 

 from coll. Alabama, Gates, has hirsute foliage), a form with slender and looser spike. — Moist 

 or rich soil, Mass. and New York to Wisconsin and Arkansas, and south through the upper 

 country to Florida and Louisiana. 



Var. montana. Low and stout, 10 to 20 inches high : leaves broader, lower ones 

 half to two-thirds inch wide, obtuse: spike proportionally short and heads large. — L. 

 macrostachya, Michx. 1. c, in part. L. pumila, Loddiges. L. spicata, Sweet, Brit. Fl. Gard. 

 t. 49. L. pilosa, in part, Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 74. — Rocky mountain-tops in Virginia and 

 N. Carolina, where it abounds. 



L. graminif olia, Pursh. More slender than the preceding, mostly ODly 2 or 3 feet high : 

 leaves usually ciliate toward the base with scattered hispid hairs, rigid, often sparse : heads 

 more sparsely spicate or scattered, not rarely becoming racemose or paniculate, mostly half- 

 inch long : involucre acutish at base ; its bracts firmer, oval and oblong, glandular-punctate 

 on the herbaceous back, the rounded (or sometimes slightly herbaceous-apiculate) tip hardly 

 at all scarious-edged. — (Willd. Spec. iii. 1636, only as to name & syn. of Anonymos gramini- 

 folia, Walt., which is also uncertain.) Pursh, Fl. ii. 308 (excl. portions of char, taken from 

 Willd.); Nutt. Gen. ii. 131 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 274; DC. Prodr. v. 130, chiefly; Torr. & Gray, Fl. 

 ii. 72. L. pilosa, var. gracilis, Nutt. Gen. ii. 131. L. virgata, Nutt. Jour. Acad. Philad. vii. 72, 

 & Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. n. ser. vii. 284, a form running into compound-paniculate inflores- 

 cence, with small heads. Serratula foliis linearibus, Gronov. Virg. ed. 1, 92 ; cited by Linnaeus 

 under S. spicata. — Dry or moist ground, Virginia to Florida. 



Var. dubia, Gray. Spike strict and virgate, with many approximate rather large 

 heads, or occasionally racemiform, or abnormally paniculate : bracts of the involucre nar- 

 rower and thinner, sometimes obscurely scarious-margined. — Man. 224 (Torr. & Gray, 1. c). 

 L. pilosa, Willd. (Serratula pilosa, Ait. Kew. ed. 1, iii.' 138 ?, apparently a state with unusually 

 narrow involucral scales, and like Lodd. Cab. t. 356, the only character being " 6". Joliis 

 linearibus pilosis, Jloribus axillaribus longe pedunculatis ") ; Pursh, 1. c. ; Ell. 1. c. ; Lindl. Bot. 

 Reg. t. 595. L. pilosa, var. Imvicaulis, & L. spicata, var. racemosa, DC. 1. c. L. dubia, Bart. 

 Mat. Med. ii. 222, t. 49. L. propinqua, Hook. Bot. Mag. t. 3829. — Sandy pine barrens, New 

 Jersey to Florida and Alabama, near the coast, in wet or dry soil. 



L. gracilis, Pursh. Cinereous-pubescent or glabrate : stem slender, 1 to 3 feet high : leaves 

 rather short, mostly spreading ; lower usually oblong-linear or oblanceolate, upper small and 

 narrow: heads small (4 or 5 lines long), 3-5- or rarely 6-7-flowered, numerous in a virgate 

 raceme, on spreading or horizontal slender pedicels, or rarely spicate, often loosely com- 

 pound-paniculate : bracts of the involucre lax, rather few (7-10), thinnish, commonly gland- 

 ular-puberulent, not scarious at tip. — Fl. ii. 508; Torr. & Gray, L c. L. pauciflosculosa , 

 Nutt. in Jour. Acad. Philad. 1. c. 71. X. lanceolata, Bertol. Misc. v. 11, t. 3. — Dry pine 

 barrens, Georgia, Alabama and Florida. 



