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LIATRIS spicata.
Long-spiked Liatris.
Natural Order. Compositæ. Adanson fam. 2.103.
Sect. II. CARDUACEÆ. Div. 5. Vernoniaceæ.
L IA T R IS . Supra fo l. U .
L. spicata, caule simplici elato, foliis linearibus glabris basi
ciliatis nervosis et punctatis, spica longlssima ; floribus sessilibus,
squamis lineari-oblongis obtusis appressis. Pursh Fl.
Amer. sept. v. 2. p . 507. sub. L. macrostacbya.
Liatris spicata. Willden. sp. p i. 3. p. 1636. Botan.
magaz. 1411. Pers. syn. 2. p . 403.
Liatris macrostacbya. Mich. amer. 2. p. 91.
Serratola spicata. Andrews's reposit. 401.
Root tuberous, bulbiform, fleshy; from the base
and sides of which proceed numerous fibres. Stems
several, springing from the same root, from 1 to 4 feet
high, erect, more than half composed of pith, very
leafy, channelled, owing to the wings that run down
the stem from one leaf to the next, smooth, green below,
and purple upwards. Leaves sessile, at the root lanceolate,
stem ones linear, smooth, with a fringed base,
prominently veined and dotted with numerous small
transparent dots, bluntish. Flowers purple, crowded
in a long close spike, sessile. Involucre many-leaved,
imbricate ; scales linearly oblong, obtuse, close pressed,
with a thin membranaceous margin. Receptacle naked,
slightly convex, punctured. Florets from 10 to 20,
tubular, 5-cleft, tube about the length of the pappus ;
laciniaj oblong, bluntish, about half the length of the
tube. Anthers 5, connected into a tube, about the
length of the floret. Style about as long as the anthers,
where it divides into 2 long blunt stigmas of a lilac
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