Verbesina. COMPOSITE. 287 



disk from flattish to low conical : awns of the pappus not hooked : ours all per- 

 ennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 11. 



# Akenes wholly wingless : receptacle nearly flat : flowers yellow, the" rays 1 to 5, lanceolate : 

 leaves opposite. 



V. OCOidentalis, Walt. Green and minutely pubescent or glabrous, 4. to 7 feet high, with 

 erect narrowly 4-winged branches, leafy up to the short peduncles of the carymbosely panicu- 

 late open cymes : leaves ovate and the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, acutely ser- 

 rate, the larger about 8 inches long, contracted into a margined petiole : involucre oblong, 

 4 or 5 lines high: akenes obovate-oblong, pubescent. — Car. 213. Y~ Siegesbeckia, Michx. 

 Fl. ii. 134; DC. Prodr. v. 616 ; Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 358. Siegesbeckia occidental! s, L. Spec. 

 ii. 900, & PI. Gronov. V. Phatthusa, Cass. Diet. Ii. 476, & lix. 149; DC. Prodr. 1. c, but 

 there are no squamellre. Phcethusa Americana, Gasrtn. Fruct. ii. 425, t. 169, f. 3, hairs at 

 summit of akene exaggerated, and awns missing. P. borealis, Spreng. Syst. iii. 591. Core- 

 opsis alata, Pursh, Fl. ii. 567, therefore Actinomeris alata, Nutt. Gen. 181. — Borders of 

 woods and banks, S. Penn. to Illinois and Florida. 



# * Akenes or most of them broadly winged at maturity, but variable : receptacle convex to con- 

 ical: flowers both of ray and disk white or whitish; the anthers blackish: rays 3 to 5, obovate, 

 short: leaves alternate. 



V. Virginica, L. Minutely tomentose-pubescent or puberulent, 3 to 6 feet high : stem or 

 brauches winged or wingless : leaves green and glabrate or minutely hispidulous-scabrous 

 above, cinereous to canescent beneath, ovate or the upper narrower, from denticulate to 

 coarsely serrate, contracted below into a winged petiole: heads small, 3 or 4 lines high, 

 crowded on the irregular branches of the compound paniculate naked cyme : bracts of the 

 involucre lanceolate, rather obtuse, erect, pubescent : awns of the pappus slender, sometimes 

 obsolete. — Spec. ii. 901 ; Walt. 1. c. ; Michx. 1. c. ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 1. c. 359. V. pa- 

 niculata, Poir. Diet. viii. 456. V. microptera, DC. 1. c. ; akenes sometimes but not always 

 imperfectly winged. V. polycephala, DC. 1. c, rather robust form. V. villosa, Nutt. Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 370, a tomentose form. V. Texana, Buckley in Proc. Acad. Philad. 1861, 

 458. — Rich dry soil, Penn. ?"and Illinois to Florida and Texas. (Mex.) 



Var. laciniata. Leaves variously and irregular sinuate- or laciniate-lobed, rarely 

 almost to the midrib ;' the principal lobes 3 to 5. — Siegesbeckia laciniata, Poir. Diet. vii. 158. 

 Verbesina laciniata, Nutt. Gen. ii. 170. V. sinuata. Ell. Sk. ii. 411 ; DC. 1. c. ; Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. — Along the coast, S. Carolina to Florida. 



§ 2. PrEEOPHTTON. Heads (solitary or scattered) comparatively broad: in- 

 volucre more or less imbricated, all or at least the inner bracts erect or appressed : 

 disk convex to oval and the akenes all erect in fruit ; the receptacle from convex 

 to conical : rays several to numerous, either neutral or styliferous (even in the 

 same species), but almost always infertile : akenes flat : awns of the pappus not 

 hooked, often obsolete or wanting : perennial herbs. — Gray, Proc. Am. Acad, 

 xix. 12. Part of Pterophyton, Cass., & of Actinomeris, Nutt. 



# Stems wholly wingless and marginless: leaves long and linear, not decurrent: bracts of the in- 

 volucre narrow, the outer loose and disposed to become foliaceous. 



V. longifolia, Geat. Stems slender, smooth and glabrous, 2 or 3 feet high, very leafy, 

 branching at summit and bearing several heads : leaves alternate or some 2-3-nate, sessile, 

 scabrous, reticulate-veiny and with prominent midrib, 4 to 9 inches long, quarter to half inch 

 wide : head hemispherical, half-inch high, with flattish disk, often subtended by one or two 

 linear leaf-like bracts : involucral bracts linear : rays about 15, neutral, inch long : akenes 

 obovate, smooth, with narrow wing, a shallow notch, and no awns or rarely a rudimentary 

 one. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 12. Actinomeris longifolia, Gray, PI. Wright, ii. 89. — Mountains 

 of S. Arizona, Wright, Rothrock, &c. 



# # Stems wholly wingless: leaves ovate to oblong, sessile, not decurrent, mostly opposite: 

 bracts of the involucre broader and closer : rays not rarely styliferous. 



V. Wrightii, Gray, 1. c. Scabrous and mostly hispidulous : stems stout, 1 to 3 feet high, 

 somewhat branching, bearing few or solitary long-pedunculate showy heads: leaves from 



