COMPOSITE. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.) 223 



of flesh-colored flowers. (Name of o-KXnpos, hard, and AeTri's, a scale, from the 

 pappus.) 



1. S. verticillata, Cass. — In water: pine barrens, New Jersey and 

 southward. Aug. 



4. LIATRIS, Schreb. Button Snakeroot. Blazing-Star. 



Head several - many-flowered : flowers perfect. Scales of the involucre im- 

 bricated, appressed. Keceptacle naked. Corolla 5-lobcd. Achenia slender, 

 tapering to the base, about 10-ribbed. Pappus of 15 -40 capillary bristles, 

 which are manifestly plumose, or only barbellate. — Perennial herbs, often 

 resinous-dotted, with rigid alternate entire leaves (these sometimes twisted so 

 as to become vertical), and heads of handsome rose-purple flowers, spicate, 

 racemose, or panicled-cymose, appearing late in summer or in autumn. (Deri- 

 vation of the name unknown.) 



§ 1 . Stem usually wand-like and simple, from a globular or roundish corm or tuber 

 (impregnated with resinous matter), very leafy : leaves narrow or grass-like, 1- 

 5-nerved: heads spicate or racemed: involucre well imbricated: lobes of the 

 corolla long and slender. 



* Pappus very plumose ; scales of the 5-foivered involucre with ovate or lanceolate 



spreading petai -I ike (purple or sometimes white) tips, exceeding the flowers. 



1. L. elegans, Willd. Stem (3° -5° high) and involucre hairy; leaves 

 short and spreading; spike or raceme compact (1° long). — Barren soil, Vir- 

 ginia and southward. 



* * Pappus very plumose : scales of the cylindrical many flowered involucre imbri- 



cated in many rows, the tips rigid, not petal-like : corolla hairy witliin. 



2. L. squarr6sa, Willd. (Blazing-Star, &c.) Often hairy (1.0-3° 

 high); leaves linear, elongated; heads few (1' long) ; scales of the involucre 

 mostly with elongated and leaf-like spreading tips. — Dry soil, Pennsylvania to 

 Illinois and southward. 



3. L. cylindracea, Michx. Commonly smooth (6' -18' high); leaves 

 linear; heads few (j'-f long) ; scales of the involucre with short and rounded ap- 

 pressed tips. — Dry open places, Niagara Falls to Wisconsin, and south westward. 



* * * Pappus not obviously plumose to the naked eye : corolla smooth inside. 



4. L. SCari6sa, Willd. Stem stout (2°-5°high) pubescent or hoary; 

 leaves (smooth, rough, or pubescent) lanceolate ; the lowest o' long-lanceolate or 

 obovate-oblong, tapering into a petiole; heads few or many, larg€, 30-40-flow- 

 ered ; scales of the broad or depressed involucre ohovate or spatulate, very numerous, 

 with dry and scarious often colored tips or margins. — Dry soil, New England to 

 Minnesota, and southward. — Widely variable : heads 1' or less in diameter. 



5. L. pil6sa, Willd. Beset with long scattered hairs ; stem stout ; leaves 

 linear or linear-lanceolate, elongated; heads few, 10-15-flowered; scales of the 

 top-shaped or bell-shaped involucre slightly margined, the outer narrowly oblong, very 

 obtuse, the innermost linear. — Mountains of Virginia and southward : rare and 

 obscure. Perhaps a remarkable state of the next ; but the flowers as largo 

 a6 in the preceding. 



