Senecio. COMPOSITE. 391 



S. aureus, L. Very early glabrate, usually quite free from wool at flowering (in spring or 

 early summer) and a foot or two high from small rootstocks : radical leaves mostly rounded 

 and undivided, and cauline lanceolate and pinnatifid or laciniate : most polymorphous species, 

 of which the typical form is bright green, 1 to 3 feet high, surculose by slender rootstocks : 

 leaves thin ; principal radical ones roundish, cordate or truncate at base, crenate-dentate (1 to 

 3 inches in diameter), on long slender petioles; lower cauline similar, with 2 or 3 lobelets on 

 the petiole, or lyrately divided or lobed; others more laciniate-pinnatifid and lobes often 

 incised ; uppermost sparse and small, with closely sessile or auriculate-dilated incised base : 

 heads rather numerous, 4 or 5 lines high : rays 8 to 12, conspicuous, rarely wanting : akenes 

 quite glabrous. — Spec. ii. 870 ; Michx. Fl. ii. 820 ; Ell. Sk. ii. 331 ; DC. Prodr. vi. 432 ; Torr. 

 & Gray, Fl. ii. 442 ; Sprague, "Wild Flowers, 77, t. 15, the normal form. 5. gracilis, Pursh, 

 Fl. ii. 529 ; DC. 1. c, a slender or depauperate form. S. fastigiatus, Schwein. in Ell. 1. c. 



— Swamps and wet banks, usually in shaded ground, Newfoundland to Florida, Texas, and 

 to Brit. Columbia and the Sierra Nevada, California. 



Var. obovatus, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Kadical leaves of thicker texture, rotund with 

 abrupt or truncate base, or obovate and cuneate-contracted into a short margined petiole, or 

 the earliest in the rosulate tufts almost sessile and humifuse : otherwise as in the typical 

 form. — 5. obovatus, Muhl. in Willd. Spec. iii. 1999; Pursh, 1. c.; Ell. 1. c. S. Elliott ii, 

 Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 443, a form with the early radical leaves more plantagineous and very 

 short-petioled. — More open and moist grounds, Canada to Indiana and Georgia, in the upper 

 country, characteristically developed southward. 



Var. Balsamitse, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. Less glabrate, not rarely holding more or 

 less wool until fruiting : depauperate stems a span or two, larger fully 2 feet high : principal 

 or earliest radical leaves oblong, sometimes oval, commonly verging to lanceolate, inch or 

 two long, serrate, contracted into slender petioles ; the succeeding lyrately pinnatifid : heads 

 usually rather small and numerous : akenes almost always hispidulous-pubescent on the 

 angles. — 5. Balsamitm, Muhl. I. c. ; Pursh, 1. c. S. Plattensis, Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 

 1. c. 413, a robust and larger-leaved western form, verging toward S. tomentosus. S. aureus, 

 var. lanceolatus, Oakes in Hovey's Mag., & Torr. & Gray, 1. c, an attenuated form of this, or 

 of the type, growing in shady swamps. S. pauperculus, Michx. Fl. ii. 120, depauperate form. 



— Rocky or nearly dry ground, Canada to Texas, and northwestward to Brit. Columbia. 

 Var. COmpactUS. A span or two high, in close tufts, rather rigid, when young 



whitened with fine tomentum, glabrate in age : radical leaves oblanceolate or attenuate-spat- 

 ulate, entire or 3-toothed at apex, or pinnatifid-dentate, an inch or more long, thick and firm 

 at maturity ; cauline lanceolate or linear, entire or pinnatifid : heads rather numerous and 

 crowded in the cyme, rather small : ovaries papillose-hispidulous on the angles. — S. aureus, 

 var. borealis, Gray, PI. Wright, i. 125, & Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 68, in part. — N. W. 

 Texas ( Wright) to the base of the mountains in Colorado, Hall & Harbour, Greene, &c. ; 

 mostly in saline soil. 



Var. borealis, Tore. & Gray, 1. c. A foot down to a span high, at summit bearing 

 either numerous or few heads ; these not rarely rayless : leaves thickish ; radical from round- 

 ish with abrupt or even truncate base to cuneate-obovate and cuneate-spatulate, half-inch to 

 inch long, slender-petioled ; cauline seldom much pinnatifid : akenes glabrous. — 5. elongatus, 

 paxiciflorus, & Ci/mbalaria? Pursh, Fl. ii. 529, 530. S. aureus, var. foliosus, &c, Hook. 1. c. 

 S. aureus, var. borealis & var. discoideus, Torr. & Gray, 1. c. S. cymbalarioides & S. debilis, 

 Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. 408, 412. —Labrador to Brit. Columbia, Oregon, the high 

 Sierra Nevada in California, and mountains of Nevada, Utah, and Colorado, where are forms 

 undistinguishable from the following. 



Var. croceus, Gray. A span to a foot or two high, glabrous or early glabrate . 

 leaves somewhat succulent; radical oblong to roundish, sometimes lyrate ; cauline very 

 various : heads usually numerous in the cyme : flowers saffron-colored or orange, at least the 

 rays, or these sometimes wanting. — Proc. Acad. Philad. 1863, 68; Porter & Coulter, Fl. 

 Colorad. 82; Eaton, Bot. King Exp. 190, & S. Fendleri of the same. S. aureus, var. multi- 

 lobatus, Gray, Bot. Calif, i. 411, in part. — Wet ground, high mountains of Colorado, Utah, 

 Nevada, north to Montana, and sparingly in the Sierra Nevada ; first coll. by Parry, &c. 



Var. SUbniidus. Wholly glabrous or glabrate, slender, a span or two high, bearing 

 2 or 3 small cauline leaves and a solitary head, or not rarely a pair : radical leaves few. 

 spatulate or obovate, sometimes roundish, half-inch or less long, occasionally lyrate : cauline 

 incised or sparingly pinnatifid : rays conspicuous. — S. subnudus, DC. Prodr. vi. 428 ; Nutt. 



