COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 209 



= = Plants mostly in clumps or tufts, or from tufted or creeping rootstocks. 



a. Stems mostly robust, generally a foot to 3 or 5 feet high, bearing numerous 

 heads in a cyme: rays 8 to 12, conspicuous : leaves from entire to dentate, none 

 really cordate nor with permanent tomentum. None truly alpine. 



12. S. integerrimus, Nutt. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, or the radical elon- 

 gated-oblong, quite entire or denticulate; upper ones reduced and bract-like, 

 attenuate-subulate from a dilated base: heads several, umbellately cymose, com- 

 monly \ inch high : involucral bracts narrow, acute or acuminate. — The 

 Dakotas to Wyoming and the Saskatchewan. 



13. S. lugens, Richards. Lightly floccose-woolly when young, in the 

 typical form early glabrate and bright green : stem 6 inches to 2 feet high, 

 few- and small-leaved and naked above, terminated by a cyme of several or 

 rather numerous heads : radical and lower cauline leaves spatulate, varying to 

 oval or oblong, either gradually or abruptly contracted at base into a winged or 

 margined short petiole, usually repand- or callous-denticulate ; upper cauline lan- 

 ceolate or reduced and bract-like : bracts of the involucre lanceolate, with 

 obtuse or acutish commonly blackish tips : rays 10 or 12, conspicuous. — In- 

 cludes var. Hookeri and var. Pairyi. Through the whole Rocky Mountains to 

 New Mexico and westward to California. 



Var. foliosus, Gray. Floccose wool usually persistent up to flowering, 

 and vestiges remaining to near maturity : stem seldom over a foot high, 

 stouter, more leafy to near the inflorescence : leaves comparatively large, 

 oblong to broadly lanceolate : heads often very numerous and crowded in the 

 corymbiform cyme, then narrower: tips of involucral bracts conspicuously 

 blackish. — Bot. Calif, i. 413. S. lugens, var. exaltatus, Eaton. Mountains of 

 Colorado and Utah. 



Var. exaltatus, Gray. Lightly floccose when young, and not rarely with 

 looser and more persistent scattered hairs : stem stout, 1 to 3 or even 4 or 5 

 feet high : leaves thickish ; radical longer-petioled, from spatulate-lanceolate 

 to obovate or ovate, the broader ones abrupt and sometimes even subcor- 

 date at base ; cauline occasionally laciniate-dentate : heads mostly numer- 

 ous in the cyme. — Loc. cit. S. exaltatus, Nutt. Wet ground, British 

 Columbia and Idaho to California, extending within the western limits of 

 our range. 



b. Stems low, only 2 to 6 inches high, scapiform : leaves clustered on the rootstock 

 or caudex, entire or crenate; those of the scape reduced to mere bracts. Chief y 

 alpine or subalpine. 



1. Leaves thick and coriaceous, tapering into a petiole, crowded on the multicipital 



caudex. 



14. S. wernerisefolius, Gray. Woolly and canescent, tardily glabrate : 

 leaves quite entire, erect or ascending, from spatulate-linear (2 or 3 inches long, 

 including the petiole-like base) to elongated-oblong and short-petioled, the mar- 

 gins sometimes revolute : scape a span high, rather stout, bearing 2 to 8 heads ; 

 these 4 or 5 lines high : rays 10 or 12, oblong, 2 lines long, rarely few or want- 

 ing. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 54. S. aureus, var. wernericefolius, Gray. Moun- 

 tains of Colorado, alpine. 



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