The Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States Part 93

Heads many-flowered; the flowers all tubular, dicious, i.e., the pistillate and staminate borne by different plants. Involucre imbricated. Corolla of the pistillate flowers very slender and thread-like; of the staminate, larger and 5-lobed. Anthers tailless.

Achenes ribbed; pappus of capillary bristles, in the sterile plant scanty and tortuous; in the fertile very long and copious.--Shrubs, commonly smooth and resinous or glutinous. Flowers whitish or yellow, autumnal. (Name of some shrub anciently dedicated to _Bacchus_.)

1. B. halimiflia, L. Smooth and somewhat scurfy; branches angled; leaves obovate and wedge-form, petiolate, coa.r.s.ely toothed, or the upper entire; heads scattered or in leafy panicles; scales of the involucre acutish.--Sea beaches, Ma.s.s. to Va., and southward.--Shrub 6--12 high; the fertile plant conspicuous in autumn by its very long and white pappus.

2. B. glomeruliflra, Pers. Leaves spatulate-oblong, sessile or nearly so; heads larger, sessile in the axils or in cl.u.s.ters; scales of the bell-shaped involucre broader, very obtuse.--Pine barrens, E. Va. (?), and southward.

28. PLuCHEA, Ca.s.s. MARSH-FLEABANE.

Heads many-flowered; the flowers all tubular; the central perfect, but sterile, few, with a 5-cleft corolla; all the others with a thread-shaped truncate corolla, pistillate and fertile. Involucre imbricated. Receptacle flat, naked. Anthers with tails. Achenes grooved; pappus capillary, in a single row.--Herbs, somewhat glandular, emitting a strong or camphoric odor, the heads cymosely cl.u.s.tered. Flowers purplish, in summer. (Dedicated to the Abbe _Pluche_.)

1. P. bifrons, DC. _Perennial_, 2--3 high; _leaves closely sessile or half-clasping_, oblong to lanceolate, sharply denticulate, veiny (only 2--3' long); heads cl.u.s.tered in a corymb; scales lanceolate.--Low ground, Cape May, N. J., and southward.

2. P. camphorata, DC. (SALT-MARSH FLEABANE.) _Annual, pale_ (2--5 high); _leaves scarcely petioled_, oblong-ovate or lanceolate, thickish, obscurely veiny, serrate; corymb flat; involucral scales ovate to lanceolate. (P. ftida, _DC._)--Salt marshes, Ma.s.s. to Va., and southward, and on river-banks westward to Ky., Ill., and Neb. (?)

29. eVAX, Gaertn.

Heads rather many-flowered, discoid; flowers as in Pluchea, the central usually sterile. Involucral scales few, woolly. Receptacle convex to subulate, chaffy, the scarious chaff not embracing the smooth dorsally compressed achenes. Anthers with tails or acutely sagittate; pappus none.--Low, densely floccose-woolly annuals; extreme western. (Name of uncertain signification.)

1. E. prolifera, Nutt. A span high or less, simple or branching from the base; leaves numerous, small and spatulate; heads in dense proliferous cl.u.s.ters; receptacle convex; chaff subtending the sterile flowers woolly-tipped, the rest more scarious and naked, oval or oblong.--Dak.

and W. Kan. to Tex.

30. FILaGO, Tourn. COTTON-ROSE.

Heads and flowers as in Evax. Receptacle elongated or top-shaped, naked at the summit, but chaffy at the margins or toward the base; the chaff resembling the proper involucral scales, each covering a single pistillate flower. Achenes terete; pappus of the central flowers capillary, of the outer ones mostly none.--Annual, low, branching woolly herbs, with entire leaves, and small heads in capitate cl.u.s.ters. (Name from _filum_, a thread, in allusion to the cottony hairs of these plants.)

F. GERMaNICA, L. (HERBA IMPIA.) Stem erect, short, clothed with lanceolate and upright crowded leaves, producing a capitate cl.u.s.ter of woolly heads, from which rise one or more branches, each terminated by a similar head, and so on;--hence the common name applied to it by the old botanists, as if the offspring were undutifully exalting themselves above the parent.--Dry fields, N. Y. to Va. July--Oct. (Nat. from Eu.)

31. ANTENNaRIA, Gaertn. EVERLASTING.

Heads many-flowered, dicious; flowers all tubular; pistillate corollas very slender. Involucre dry and scarious, white or colored, imbricated.

Receptacle convex or flat, not chaffy. Anthers caudate. Achenes terete or flattish; pappus a single row of bristles, in the fertile flowers capillary, united at base so as to fall in a ring, and in the sterile thickened and club-shaped or barbellate at the summit.--Perennial white-woolly herbs, with entire leaves and corymbed (rarely single) heads. Corolla yellowish. (Name from the resemblance of the sterile pappus to the _antennae_ of certain insects.)

1. A. plantaginiflia, Hook. (PLANTAIN-LEAVED EVERLASTING.) Spreading by offsets and runners, low (3--18' high); leaves silky-woolly when young, at length green above and h.o.a.ry beneath; those of the simple and scape-like flowering stems small, lanceolate, appressed; the radical obovate or oval-spatulate, petioled, ample, 3-nerved; heads in a small crowded corymb; scales of the (mostly white) involucre obtuse in the sterile, and acutish and narrower in the fertile plant.--Sterile knolls and banks; common. March--May.

32. ANaPHALIS, DC. EVERLASTING.

Characters as of Antennaria, but the pappus in the sterile flowers not thickened at the summit or scarcely so, and that of the fertile flowers not at all united at base; fertile heads usually with a few perfect but sterile flowers in the centre. (Said to be an ancient Greek name of some similar plant.)

1. A. margaritacea, Benth. & Hook. (PEARLY EVERLASTING.) Stem erect (1--2 high), corymbose at the summit, with many heads, leafy; leaves broadly to linear-lanceolate, taper-pointed, sessile, soon green above; involucral scales pearly-white, very numerous, obtuse or rounded, radiating in age. (Antennaria margaritacea, _R. Br._)--Dry hills and woods, common northward. Aug. (N. E. Asia.)

33. GNAPHaLIUM, L. CUDWEED.

Heads many-flowered; flowers all tubular, the outer pistillate and very slender, the central perfect. Scales of the involucre dry and scarious, white or colored, imbricated in several rows. Receptacle flat, naked.

Anthers caudate. Achenes terete or flattish; pappus a single row of capillary rough bristles.--Woolly herbs, with sessile or decurrent leaves, and cl.u.s.tered or corymbed heads; fl. in summer and autumn.

Corolla whitish or yellowish. (Name from ???fa???, _a lock of wool_, in allusion to the floccose down.)

-- 1. GNAPHALIUM proper. _Bristles of the pappus distinct._

1. G. polycephalum, Michx. (COMMON EVERLASTING.) Erect, woolly annual (1--3 high), fragrant; _leaves lanceolate, tapering at the base_, with undulate margins, _not decurrent_, smoothish above; _heads cl.u.s.tered at the summit of the panicled-corymbose branches_, ovate-conical before expansion, then obovate; scales (whitish) ovate and oblong, rather obtuse; perfect flowers few.--Old fields and woods; common.

2. G. decurrens, Ives. (EVERLASTING.) Stout, erect (2 high), annual or biennial, branched at the top, clammy-p.u.b.escent, white-woolly on the branches, bearing numerous _heads in dense corymbed cl.u.s.ters; leaves linear-lanceolate, partly clasping, decurrent_; scales yellowish-white, oval, acutish.--Hillsides, N. J. and Penn. to Maine, Mich., Minn., and northward.

3. G. uliginsum, L. (LOW CUDWEED.) _Diffusely branched_, appressed-woolly annual (3--6' high); leaves spatulate-oblanceolate or linear, not decurrent; _heads (small) in terminal sessile capitate cl.u.s.ters_ subtended by leaves; scales brownish, less imbricated.--Low grounds; common, especially east and northward; perhaps introduced.

(Eu.)

4. G. supnum, Villars. (MOUNTAIN CUDWEED.) Dwarf and tufted perennial (2' high); leaves linear, woolly; heads solitary or few and spiked on the slender simple flowering stems; scales brown, lanceolate, acute, nearly glabrous; achenes broader and flatter.--Alpine summit of Mount Was.h.i.+ngton; very rare. (Eu.)

-- 2. GAMOCHae'TA. _Bristles of the pappus united at the very base into a ring, so falling off all together._

5. G. purpureum, L. (PURPLISH CUDWEED.) Annual, simple or branched from the base, ascending (6--20' high), silvery-canescent with dense white wool; leaves oblong-spatulate, obtuse, not decurrent, green above; _heads_ in sessile cl.u.s.ters in the axils of the upper leaves, and spiked at the wand-like summit of the stem; scales tawny, the inner often marked with purple.--Sandy or gravelly soil, coast of Maine to Va., and southward.

34. ADENOCAuLON, Hook.

Heads 5--10-flowered; the flowers all tubular and with similar corollas; the marginal ones pistillate, fertile; the others perfect but sterile.

Involucral scales few, equal, in a single row, not scarious. Receptacle flat, naked. Anthers caudate. Achenes elongated at maturity, club-shaped, beset with stalked glands above; pappus none.--Slender perennials, with the alternate thin and petioled leaves smooth and green above, white-woolly beneath, and few small (whitish) heads in a loose panicle, beset with glands (whence the name, from ?d??, _a gland_, and ?a????, _a stem_).

1. A. bicolor, Hook. Leaves triangular, rather heart-shaped, with angular-toothed margins; petioles margined.--Moist woods, sh.o.r.e of Lake Superior, and westward. Stem 1--3 high.

35. iNULA, L. ELECAMPANE.

Heads many-flowered, radiate; disk-flowers perfect and fertile.

Involucre imbricated, hemispherical, the outer scales herbaceous or leaf-like. Receptacle naked. Anthers caudate. Achenes more or less 4--5-ribbed; pappus simple, of capillary bristles.--Coa.r.s.e herbs, not floccose-woolly, with alternate simple leaves, and large yellow flowers.

(The ancient Latin name.)

I. HELeNIUM, L. (ELECAMPANE.) Stout perennial (3--5 high); leaves large, woolly beneath; those from the thick root ovate, petioled, the others partly clasping; rays very many, narrow.--Roadsides and damp pastures. Aug.--Heads very large. Root mucilaginous. (Nat. from Eu.)

36. POLMNIA, L. LEAF-CUP.

Heads broad, many-flowered, radiate, rays several (rarely abortive), pistillate; disk-flowers perfect but sterile. Involucral scales in two rows; the outer about 5, leaf-like, large and spreading; the inner small and membranaceous, partly embracing the thick triangular-obovoid achenes. Receptacle flat, membranous-chaffy. Pappus none.--Tall branching perennial herbs, viscid-hairy, exhaling a heavy odor. Leaves large and thin, opposite, or the uppermost alternate, lobed, and with dilated appendages like stipules at the base. Heads in panicled corymbs.

Flowers light yellow; in summer and autumn. (Dedicated to the Muse, _Polyhymnia_, for no obvious reason.)

1. P. Canadensis, L. _Clammy-hairy_, 2--5 high; lower leaves deeply pinnatifid, the uppermost triangular-ovate and 3--5-lobed or angled, petioled; heads small; _rays 5, obovate or wedge-form, shorter than the involucre_, often minute or abortive, whitish-yellow; achenes 3-costate, not striate.--Moist shaded ravines, Conn. to W. Vt., Minn., and southward.--Var. RADIaTA, Gray; ligules more developed, 3-lobed, 3--6"

long, whitish. Ill. to Kan., and southward.

2. P. Uvedalia, L. _Roughish-hairy, stout_ (4--10 high); leaves broadly ovate, angled and toothed, nearly sessile; the lower palmately lobed, abruptly narrowed into a winged petiole; outer involucral scales very large; _rays 10--15, linear-oblong, much longer than the inner scales of the involucre_, yellow; achenes strongly striate.--Rich soil, W. New York and N. J. to Mo., and southward.

37. SiLPHIUM, L. ROSIN-WEED.

Heads many-flowered, radiate; rays numerous, pistillate and fertile, their broad flat ovaries imbricated in 2 or 3 rows; disk-flowers apparently perfect, but with entire style and sterile. Scales of the broad and flattish involucre imbricated in several rows, thickish, broad and with loose leaf-like summits, except the innermost, which resemble the linear chaff of the flat receptacle. Achenes broad and flat, dorsally compressed, surrounded by a wing notched at the top, without pappus, or with 2 teeth confluent with the winged margin, the achene and its subtending chaff usually falling together; those of the disk sterile and stalk-like.--Coa.r.s.e and tall rough perennial herbs, with copious resinous juice, and large corymbose-panicled, yellow-flowered heads.