COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 2V J > 



more or less herbaceous spinescent-tipped spreading upper portion, and no 

 glandular dorsal ridge. 



4. C. Eatoni, Gray. A foot or so high, mostly simple, loosely arachnoid- 

 woolly or glabrate : leaves pinuatifid or pinnately parted into short lobes, 

 mostly very prickly, either green and glabrate, or remaining whitish-woolly 

 beneath: heads an inch high, few or several and sessile in a terminal cluster: 

 involucre from arachnoid-ciliate to glabrate or apparently glabrous ; its principal 

 bracts erect, with broadish appressed base, abruptly attenuate into the subu- 

 late-acerose slightly herbaceous spiuescent portion, outermost little shorter 

 than the inner: corolla whitish. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 56. Cirsium folio- 

 sum and C. Drummondii in part, of the Western Reports. Mountains of Colo- 

 rado, Utah, and Nevada. 



5. C. Neo-MexicanUS, Gray. Stout, 2 to 4 feet high; herbage and 

 commonly squarrose involucre copiously ivhile-woolly : leaves from sinuate- 

 dentate to pinuatifid, not very prickly: heads solitary, terminating the stem 

 or branches, often 2 inches high and broad: principal bracts of the involucre 

 with spinescent rigid tips % to I inch long: corolla from white to pale-pur- 

 ple. — Proc. Am. Acad. x. 45. Plains of S. Colorado, New Mexico, and 

 Arizona. 



* * * * Bracts of the involucre regularly and chiefly appressed-imbricated in 

 numerous ranks ; the outer successively shorter, not herbaceous-tipped or 

 appendaged. 



a- Flowers from rose-purple to white: involucre glabrous or early glabrate, the 

 light arachnoid wool caducous ; its bracts coriaceous, not at all glandular on 

 the back, outer tipped with a short weak prickle or cusp, innermost wholly 

 unarmed. 



6. C. Drummondii, Gray. Green and somewhat villous-pubescent, or 

 when young lightly arachnoid-woolly, either stemless and bearing sessile heads 

 in a cluster on the crown, or caulescent and even 2 or 3 feet high, with solitary 

 or several loosely disposed heads: leaves from sinuate or almost entire to pinnately 

 parted, moderately prickly : larger heads fully 2 inches high : involucral bracts 

 weak-prickly pointed, innermost with more scarious and sometimes obviously 

 dilated and erose-fimbriate tips : corollas either white or sometimes rose- 

 purple. — Proc. Am. Acad. x. 40. From the mountains of Colorado and 

 California to the far north. 



Var. acaulescens, Gray. Smaller, with heads (solitary or several on 

 the crowu, encircled by the radical leaves) only inch and a half long, or less, 

 and proportionally narrow : outer involucral bracts with a longer but rather 

 weak prickle. — Mountains of Colorado to California. 



7. C. SCariostlS, Gray. White with cottony tomentum, at least the lower 

 face of the leaves: stem about a foot high : leaves of lanceolate outline, mostly 

 pinnately parted into lanceolate long-prickly lobes ; upper face sometimes villous, 

 sometimes only cottony and early glabrate : heads 2 or 3 in a sessile cluster, 

 or solitary on short leafy branches : innermost bracts of involucre commonly 

 with more conspicuous erose or entire scarious tips : corollas pale or white. — 

 Synopt. Fl. i. 402. Mountain plains, Wyoming and Utah. 



