54 DISCOPLEURA DC. Mem. Umbel. 38.— Smooth 
branching" annuals, with finely dissected leaves (filiform or lanceo- 
late divisions), involucre of foliaceous bracts, involucels of promi- 
nent or minute bractlets, and v/hite flowers. 
1. D. capillacea DC. 1. c. A foot or two high, or even 
reaching 5 or 6 feet: leaves finely dissected into filiform divisions: 
umbel 5 to 20-rayed, with involucre of filiform bracts usually cleft 
or parted, and involucels more or less prominent; rays to 1 
inch long; pedicels to 3 lines long; fruit ^ to 1 line long, with 
filiform or thick dorsal and intermediate ribs, the laterals forming 
a broad flat band about the fruit: seed-face convex. (Fig* 156.) 
Wet ground, Massachusetts to Florida, and westward to the plains. 
FI. June to October. 
This species is an exceedingly variable one, so much so that while cer- 
tain extreme forms have been considered as distinct varieties and even 
species, they are so completely connected by intermediate forms that no 
distinct separation can be made. For instance, the number of rays is very 
inconstant, the involucral bracts are frequently cleft and entire in different 
umbels upon the sa me plant, the involucels may or may not be prominent 
in any form, and the dorsal and intermediate ribs may be filiform or prom- 
inent with any other combination of characters. The prominent ribs fur- 
nish the chief character of DeOandolle’s var. costata, but ribs just as prom- 
inent occur in all other forms, and DeOandolle himself (Prodr. iv. 107) says 
he is not able to separate many specimens of var. costata from the species. 
An extreme form, completely connected with the species by intermediate 
forms, is ^ 
Var. Nuttaliii C. & R. Bot Gazette, xii. 292, which is 
usually stouter, with more numerous rays, entire involucral bracts, 
and minute involucels.— Z?. Ntittaldi DC. 
In the Mississippi Valley, from S. Illinois {Vasey) to Louisiana and 
Texas. 
2. D. laciniata Benth. & Hook. Gen. Plant, i. 907. Two 
or three feet high: leaves dissected into lanceolate divisions, or the 
uppermost linear-setaceous: umbel nearly equally many-rayed, 
with involucre and involucels of numerous 3 to 5-parted setaceous 
bracts; rays ^ to 1]^ inches long; pedicels 2 to 3 lines long: fruit 
about 2 lines long, with broad and flattish dorsal and intermediate 
ribs, the laterals forming a promint acute ridge about the fruit: 
seed-face plane. (Fig. 157.) — Dm/cus Jaciniatus Eng. & Gray, 
PI. Lindh. 210. 
