444 COMPOSITE. Sonchus. 



# # Flowers bluish to yellowish or whitish: pappus sordid or fuscous: upper cauline leaves sessile 

 by a mostly narrowed but auriculate or partly clasping base : heads in a pyramidal more crowded 

 panicle. — Mulgedium § Agalma, DC. 1. c, in part. 



L. leucophEea, Geat, 1. c. Stem 3 to 12 feet high, stout, leafy up to the panicle: leaves 

 ample, sinuately or runcinately pinnatifid, coarsely and irregularly or doubly dentate : invo- 

 lucre oblong, 5 lines high . akenes narrowed at summit into a short but manifest neck. 



L. Canadensis flore leucophceo, Tourn. Sonchus alpinus, L., as to char. (& of Smith, Ic. Ined. 

 t. 21), & S. Canadensis, L., as to habitat, owing to transposition by Linnseus. S. spicatus, 

 Lam. Diet. iii. 401, excl. syn. Walt. S. racemosus, Lam. 1. c. 400. S. biennis, Mcench, 

 Meth. 545. S. leucoplmus, Willd. Spec. iii. 1520, excl. syn. Walt. S. Floridanus, Ait. Kew. 

 iii. 116, from fruit of which is probably that of Lactuca Floridana, Gsertn. t. 158. S. acumi- 

 natus, Bigel. Fl. Bost. ed. 2, 290. 5. pallidus, Torr. Compend. 279. Agathyrsus leucophcens, 

 Beck, Bot. 170. Mulgedium leucophceum, DC. 1. c. , Nutt. 1. c. '(§ Leucomela) ; Torr. & Gray, 

 Fl. ii. 499. M. multiflorum, DC. 1. c. Sonchus multiflorus, Desf. Cat. (and so Galathenium 

 mulnflorum, Nutt. 1. c. ) is, from sessile cauline leaves, probably this species. — Moist grounds 

 and border of woods, Newfoundland to Canada, Iowa, mountains of Carolina and Tennessee, 

 and northwestward to coast of Oregon and Brit. Columbia. 



Var. integrifolia. Leaves undivided (simulating those of L. acuminata, but sessile), 

 or the lower sinuate-pinnatifid. — il idgedium leucophmum, var. integrifolia, Torr. & Gray, 

 1. c. — Ohio, Lea. Canton, Illinois, Wolf. 



L. macrophylla, Sonchus macrophyllus, Willd., is not known in this country, and is doubt- 

 less an Old World species. 



L. AL>fsA, Sonchus alpinus, L., is not American. For an account of the early confusion 

 between this and L. leucophcea, see the latter species, supra, and Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 500. 



335. SONCHUS, Tourn. Sow-Thistle. (The ancient Greek name.) 

 — Herbs of the Old World, some species now widely diffused, the following natu- 

 ralized in N. America. Stems leafy : leaves somewhat spinulosely or ciliately 

 dentate : flowers yellow, in summer : pappus white. 



* Coarse annual weeds, of cultivated soil and around dwellings; with mostly runcinately or 

 lyratel}' pinnatifid leaves, of tender texture, beset with soft spinulose serratures ; upper cauline 

 auriculate-clasping, and lobes ovate or oblong : heads about half-inch high, somewhat corym- 

 bose-paniculate, on short peduncles; these sometimes setose-glandular: akenes flat, thin-edged, 

 oblong-obovate. 



S. olerAcetjs, L. Leaves with soft or hardly spinulose teeth ; auricles of the cauline ones 

 acute : akenes striate-nerved and transversely rugulose-scabrous. — Common in yards and 

 gardens. (Nat. from Eu.) 



S. asper, Vili,. Teeth of the leaves longer and more prickly ; auricles of the clasping 

 base rounded : akenes smooth, 3-nerved on each side, margined. — Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 501, 

 with syn. S. Carolinianus, Walt. Car. 192; Ell. Sk. ii. 255. <S*. spinulosus, Bigel. FL 

 Bost. ed. 2, 292. — More common westward and southward, widely dispersed, even to 

 remote districts. 



* * Slender annual; wi h leaves pinnately parted into narrow lobes. 

 S. tenerrimus, L. A foot or two high, with rather few and scattered pedunculate heads, 

 glabrous : lobes of the leaves mostly linear or narrowly lanceolate, somewhat spinulosely 

 denticulate : akenes narrow, thickish, rugose-scabrous. — S. tenuifolius, Nutt. Trans. Am. 

 Fhil. Soc. vii. 438. — San Diego, California, Nuttall, Orcutt. (Nat. from Eu.) 



# # # Strong-rooted perennial, with deep yellow flowers : akenes thickish. 

 S. arvejtsis, L. Rootstocks creeping : stems 2 feet high, naked at summit, bearing few or 

 several and corymbosely paniculate showy heads : leaves runcinate-pinnatifid or some undi- 

 vided, denticulate-spinulose, cauline partly clasping at base : peduncles and involucre more 

 or less glandular-bristly': head almost inch high : akenes oblong, about 10-costate, rugulose 

 on the ribs. — On shores and banks of streams, in several places in N. Atlantic States, and 

 Salt Lake City, Utah. (Nat. from Eu.) 



