COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 173 



c. Stems leaf j, mostly branched above and bearing few or several heads: pubes- 

 cence not cinereous nor spreading, either strigose or none : pappus simple. 



22. E. decumbens, Nutt. Slender, commonly low or spreading, 6 to 

 18 inches high, strigulose-pubescent or pubemlent, or glabrate: leaves linear 

 or sometimes linear-spatulate (radical not rarely 4 to G inches long and only 

 a line or two wide) : involucre minutely hirsute or pubescent : rays 15 to 40, 

 white, purplish, or violet-tinged. — Mountains, from Montana and Utah to 

 Oregon and California. 



* * * Perennial by sioloniform creeping rootstocks, or creeping leafy stems or 



stolons: rays very numerous (100 or more) and narrow: low ground forms. 



23. E. PhiladelphicUS, L. Soft hirsute, a foot or two high, spreading 

 by rosulate offsets borne on apex of stoloniform creeping rootstocks: stem striate- 

 angled, erect, corymbosely branching above and bearing several small heads: 

 leaves oblong, or lowest spatulate ; upper cauline half clasping, obtuse, spar- 

 ingly and coarsely serrate or entire : peduncles thickened under the head : rays 

 pink, almost filiform : pappus simple. — Across the continent. 



24. E. flagellaris, Gray. More or less cinereous with oppressed pubescence : 

 stems slender, diffusely decumbent and jiagelliform but leafy, some prostrate, 

 many at length rooting at the apex and proliferous: leaves small, entire ; radical 

 spatulate and petioled ; those of the branches becoming linear : solitary 

 peduncles 2 to 5 inches long : rays white or purplish : pappus double. — PI. 

 Feudl. 69. From the Upper Platte to Colorado, New Mexico, and W. Texas. 



* * * * Mostly cinereous-pubescent or strigose annuals, leafy-stemmed and very 



branching, often diffusely : heads conspicuously radiate and mostly paniculate: 

 low grounds and plains. 

 -i- Akenes nairow, little compressed, ivith a broad and whitish truncate apex and a 

 simple capillary pappus: rays 40 to 70 : leaves always entire. 



25. E. Bellidiastrum, Nutt. Diffusely or loosely branched, a span or 

 two high, cinereous-pubescent : leaves spatulate-linear or the lowest broader, 

 an inch or less long : heads paniculate, short-peduncled : rays light purple. — 

 Nebraska to New Mexico. 



■*- 4- Akenes compressed, 2-nerved: pappus double: inner often fragile or decidu- 

 ous : rays mostly more numerous : leaves sometimes toothed or lobed. 



26. E. divergens, Torr. & Gray. Diffusely branched and spreading, a 

 foot or less high, cinereous-pubescent or hirsute : leaves linear-spatulate or the 

 upper linear and lowest broader and sometimes laciniately toothed or lobed: 

 heads 2 or 3 lines high : rays white or purplish, very numerous : involucre hir- 

 sute : inner pappus of rather scanty bristles ; outer of short subulate scales. — 

 Fl. ii. 175. From Nebraska to "W. Texas and westward to the coast. 



27. E. StrigOSUS, Muhl. Pubescence oppressed, often strigose: stem erect, 

 seldom over 2 feet high, leafy, branched above, bearing cymose or paniculate 

 heads : leaves lanceolate and the upper entire ; hirer from spatulate-lanceolate 

 to oblong, of en serrate: rays mostly white, not excessively numerous nor very 

 narrow : involucre with few or no bristly hairs : outer pappus a short crown of dis- 

 tinct or partly united slender scales, persistent after the fragile inner pappus 

 has fallen. — From Canada to the Saskatchewan and Texas, and westward to 

 Oregon and California. 



