The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 79

[+][+] _Fertile cell as broad as the empty ones, beaked; cross-section quadrate._

2. V. radiata, Dufr. Fruit ovate-tetragonal, _downy-p.u.b.escent_ (sometimes glabrous); empty cells as thick as the oblong-ovate fertile one, or thicker, _a broad shallow groove between them_. (Fedia radiata, _Michx._)--Low grounds, Penn. to Minn., Tex., and Fla.

3. V. stenocarpa, Krok. Fruit oblong-tetragonal, _commonly glabrous_; oblong fertile cell thicker than the linear-oblong approximate empty ones. (Fedia stenocarpa, _Engelm._)--W. Mo. and E. Kan. to Tex.

[+][+][+] _Fertile cell much the narrowest, dorsally 1-nerved; section roundish._

4. V. Woodsiana, Walp. Fruit 1" long or more; fertile cell ovate, tipped with a tooth; empty ones inflated, with oblong depression (sometimes an open cavity) in the middle.--Moist grounds, N. Y. and Penn. to Tex.

Var. umbilicata, Gray. Empty cells becoming confluent, vesicular by incurvation of the circular margin, forming a deep and round umbilication. (Fedia umbilicata, _Sulliv._)--N. Y. to Ohio and southward.

Var. patellaria, Gray. Fruit saucer-shaped, emarginate at base and apex, winged by the divergent cells. (Fedia patellaria, _Sulliv._)--Same range.

ORDER 54. DIPSaCEae. (TEASEL FAMILY.)

_Herbs, with opposite or whorled leaves, no stipules, and the flowers in dense heads, surrounded by an involucre, as in the_ Composite Family; _but the stamens are distinct, and the suspended seed has alb.u.men._--Represented by the following introduced species and by the cultivated Sweet Scabious (_Scabiosa atropurpurea_).

1. DiPSACUS, Tourn. TEASEL.

Involucre many-leaved, longer than the chaffy leafy-tipped and pointed bracts among the densely capitate flowers; each flower with a 4-leaved calyx-like involucel investing the ovary and fruit (achene). Calyx-tube coherent with the ovary, the limb cup-shaped, without a pappus. Corolla nearly regular, 4-cleft. Stamens 4, inserted on the corolla. Style slender.--Stout and coa.r.s.e biennials, hairy or p.r.i.c.kly, with large oblong heads. (Name from d????, _to thirst_, probably because the united cup-shaped bases of the leaves in some species hold water.)

1. D. SYLVeSTRIS, Mill. (WILD TEASEL.) p.r.i.c.kly; leaves lance-oblong; leaves of the involucre slender, longer than the head; bracts (chaff) tapering into a long flexible awn with a straight point.--Roadsides; rather rare. (Nat. from Eu.) Suspected to be the original of

2. D. FULLNUM, L., the FULLER'S TEASEL, which has a shorter involucre, and stiff chaff to the heads, with hooked points, used for raising a nap upon woollen cloth; it has escaped from cultivation in some places.

(Adv. from Eu.)

(Addendum) 2. SCABIOSA, Tourn. SCABIOUS.

Characters of Dipsacus, but the green leaves of the involucre and involucels not rigid nor spinescent. (Name from _scabies_, the itch, from its use as a remedy.)

S. AUSTRaLIS, Wulf. Perennial, spa.r.s.ely branched, nearly glabrous, 1--3 high; leaves narrowly lanceolate to linear, the lower oblanceolate, slightly toothed or entire; heads short-oblong; calyx obtusely short-lobed; corolla pale blue.--Central N. Y. and Penn.; rare.

(Adv. from Eu.)

ORDER 55. COMPoSITae. (COMPOSITE FAMILY.)

_Flowers in a close head_ (the compound flower of the older botanists), _on a common receptacle, surrounded by an involucre, with 5 (rarely 4) stamens inserted on the corolla, their anthers united in a tube (syngenesious)._--Calyx-tube united with the 1-celled ovary, the limb (called a _pappus_) crowning its summit in the form of bristles, awns, scales, teeth, etc., or cup-shaped, or else entirely absent. Corolla either strap-shaped or tubular; in the latter chiefly 5-lobed, valvate in the bud, the veins bordering the margins of the lobes. Style 2-cleft at the apex (in sterile flowers usually entire). Fruit seed-like (_achene_), dry, containing a single erect anatropous seed, with no alb.u.men.--An immense family, in temperate regions chiefly herbs, without stipules, with perfect, polygamous, moncious or dicious flowers. The flowers with a strap-shaped (_ligulate_) corolla are called _rays_ or _ray-flowers_; the head which presents such flowers, either throughout or at the margin, is _radiate_. The tubular flowers compose the _disk_; and a head which has no ray-flowers is said to be _discoid_. When the head contains two sorts of flowers it is said to be _heterogamous_; when only one sort, _h.o.m.ogamous_. The leaves of the involucre, of whatever form or texture, are termed _scales_. The bracts or scales, which often grow on the receptacle among the flowers, are called the _chaff_; when these are wanting, the receptacle is said to be _naked_.--The largest order of Phaenogamous plants. The genera are divided by the corolla into three series, only two of which are represented in the Northern United States. The first is much the larger.

Systematic Synopsis.

SERIES I. TUBULIFLORae.

Corolla tubular in all the perfect flowers, regularly 5- (rarely 3--4-) lobed, ligulate only in the marginal or ray-flowers, which when present are either pistillate only, or neutral (with neither stamens nor pistil).

Tribe I. VERNONIACEae. Heads discoid; the flowers all alike, perfect and tubular, never yellow. Branches of the style long and slender, terete, thread-shaped, minutely bristly-hairy all over.--Leaves alternate or scattered.

1. Elephantopus. Heads 3--5-flowered, several crowded together into a compound head. Involucre of 8 scales. Pappus of several chaffy bristles.

2. Vernonia. Heads several--many-flowered, separate. Involucre of many scales. Pappus double, the inner capillary, the outer of minute chaffy bristles.

Tribe II. EUPATORIACEae. Heads discoid, the flowers all alike, perfect and tubular, never yellow. Branches of the style thickened upward or club-shaped, obtuse, very minutely and uniformly p.u.b.escent; the stigmatic lines indistinct.

[*] Pappus a row of hard scales.

3. Sclerolepis. Head many-flowered. Scales of the involucre equal.

Leaves whorled.

[*][*] Pappus of slender bristles.

[+] Achene 5-angled; bristles of the pappus roughish.

4. Mikania. Flowers and involucral scales only 4. Stems twining.

5. Eupatorium. Involucre of more than 4 scales and the flowers few or many. Stems not twining.

[+][+] Achene 10-ribbed; involucral scales striate-nerved.

6. Kuhnia. Pappus very strongly plumose. Scales of the involucre few.

7. Brickellia. Involucral scales in several series. Pappus merely scabrous.

8. Liatris. Pappus plumose or only barbellate. Corolla red-purple, strongly 5-lobed. Heads spicate or racemose, the involucre well imbricated.

9. Trilisa. Pappus minutely barbellate. Corolla rose-purple. Heads corymbed or panicled, the involucre little imbricated.

Tribe III. ASTEROIDEae. Heads discoid, the flowers all alike and tubular; or else radiate, the outer ones ligulate and pistillate. Anthers not caudate at base. Branches of the style in the perfect flowers flat, smooth up to where the conspicuous marginal stigmatic lines abruptly terminate, and prolonged above this into a flattened lance-shaped or triangular appendage which is evenly hairy or p.u.b.escent outside.--Leaves alternate. Receptacle naked (dest.i.tute of chaff) in all our species.

[*] 1. Ray-flowers yellow (in one species of Solidago whitish), or sometimes none at all.

[+] Pappus of not numerous slender bristles. Heads radiate. Involucre of firm scales with greenish tips, commonly coated with resin. West of the Mississippi.

10. Gutierrezia. Heads small, numerous. Ray and disk-flowers 3 or 4 each, all fertile. Pappus of several short chaffy scales.

Suffrutescent; leaves very narrow.

11. Amphiachyris. Heads small. Ray-flowers 5--10; pappus coroniform.

Disk-flowers infertile; pappus of several bristle-like scales. Annual; leaves very narrow.

12. Grindelia. Heads large, many-flowered. Flowers all fertile. Pappus of 2--8 rigid caducous awns. Coa.r.s.e herbs with toothed leaves.

[+][+] Pappus (at least of the disk) of copious slender or capillary bristles.

[=] Pappus double.

13. Heterotheca. Resembling Chrysopsis, but the achenes of the ray thicker than those of the disk and without pappus or nearly so. Western.