156 COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 



of the involucre rather narrow: rays 16 to 20: disk-flowers 8 to 14. Torr 



& Gray, Fl. ii. 226. From New Mexico to Montana and westward. 



14. S. lanceolata, L. Comparatively low, cymosely much branched above 

 and flat-topped, heads mostly glomerate-sessile: leaves lanceolate-linear, dis- 

 tinctly 3-nerved and the larger with an additional outer pair of more delicate 

 nerves, minutely scabrous-pubescent on the nerves beneath: outer bracts of the 

 involucre ovate or oblong: rays 15 to 20: disk-flower3 8 to 12. — From Mon- 

 tana to Canada and Georgia. 



12. TOWNSENDIA, Hook. 



Depressed or low many-stemmed herbs of the Rocky Mountains: entire 

 leaves from linear to spatulate : heads comparatively large, the numerous raya 

 from violet or rose-purple to white: akene commonly beset with hairs which 

 are forked or glochidiate-capitellate (i. e. bidentate at apex and the two lobes 

 recurved or revolute, thus appearing minutely capitate). 



* Bracts of the involucre conspicuously attenuate-acuminate : head large : involu- 

 cre ^ inch or more high, and rays ^ inch long. 

 h- Caulescent, somewhat hirsute-pubescent, but the foliage at length glabrate : invo- 

 lucre naked ; its bracts from lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate : rays showy, bright 

 blue or violet. 



1. T. eximia, Gray. Stems erect, simple or sparingly branching, 6 to 14 

 inches high : leaves spatulate or the upper lanceolate : head sparingly leafy- 

 bracted or naked at base : involucral bracts ovate-lanceolate and somewhat 

 rigidly cuspidate-acuminate, whitish-scarious with green centre : alcenes broadly 

 obovate, almost cartilaginous, glabrate, sprinkled with a few short and obscure 

 glochidiate-tipped hairs : pappus wholly persistent, of 2 subulate at length cor- 

 neous stout awns which are rather shorter than the akene, and a circle of rigid 

 scales. — PI. Fendl. 70. Mountain sides, New Mexico and Colorado. 



2. T. grandiflora, Nutt. Stems spreading from the base, sometimes 

 divergently branched above, a span or two high : upper leaves often linear, 

 2 or more uppermost subtending the head : involucre nearly of the preceding : 

 akenes narrowly obovate, sprinkled with glochidiate-capitellate hairs: pappus in 

 the ray reduced to a crown of short scales, and of the disk plurisetose and 

 longer than the akene. — Plains and hills, Wyoming and W. Nebraska to New 

 Mexico. 



3. T. Parryi, Eaton. Stems erect, simple, stout, naked and pedunculiform 

 above, 2 to 6 inches high: leaves mostly- spatulate : bracts of the very broad 

 involucre lanceolate, thinner, with sofler and less attenuate tips, or the outer 

 barely acuminate : akenes narrowly obovate, canescently pubescent, the hairs acute 

 and simple or many of them 1 to 2-dentate at tip: pappus of the ray plurisetose 

 like that of the disk, or somewhat more scanty. — Am. Naturalist, viii. 212. 

 Wyoming, Montana, and E. Idaho. 



Var. alpina, Gray. A dwarf and alpine form, more pubescent and cine- 

 rous: leaves very small, at most | inch long: flowering stem about the same 

 length or hardly any: involucral bracts less pointed: "rays pink." — Proc 

 Am. Acad. xvi. 83. Wyoming on the high divide between the Stinking Water 

 and the Yellowstone, Parry. 



