however, who unite the two species very properly adopt the name of S.
flexicaulis.
9. S. Curtisii : stem tall, very strict and simple, striate-angled, nearly
glabrous ; leaves elongated-lanceolate, smooth and mostly glabrous, finely
and sharply serrate above the middle, gradually tapering to the base, sessile,
sharply acuminate ; heads in dense and sessile axillary clusters, all many
times shorter than the leaves ; involucre minutely pubescent ; the exterior
scales short (few), the others linear, rather obtuse ; rays and disk-flowers
each 4-6 ; achenia minutely pubescent.
j3.7 monticola : leaves sparingly appressed-serrate ; the upper scarcely
longer than the subsessile glomerate clusters, the uppermost reduced to
bracts ; scales of the about 15-flowered involucre narrowly-linear, acute ;
achenia glabrous.
Mountains of North Carolina {(3. Yellow Mountain), Mr. M. A . Curtis!
&c. Aug.-Sept.—Stem virgate, 3-5 feet high, rather stout, leafy to the
summit (where it is somewhat pubescent), grooved and striate-angled, not
glaucous. Leaves rather equal throughout, membranaceous, 5-6 inches
long, half an inch to an inch wide, irregularly and sharply serrate, gradually
(the upper slightly, the lower ones conspicuously) tapering to the sessile base.
Peduncles and pedicels very short, pubescent. Heads as large as in S.
cæsia; the scales of the involucre narrower, &c.-—We have only an imperfect
specimen of var. [3.1 which appears to be a smaller plant, with shorter
leaves ; the glomerate clusters approximate, and near the summit forming a
strict interrupted spike ; the heads rather smaller, but the flowers more
numerous.
10. S. ambigua (Ait.) : stem somewhat flexuous, glabrous, angled,
branching ; leaves oblong-lanceolate, densely serrate, slightly hairy beneath ;
racemes erect; rays elongated [scales of the involucre lanceolate, acute ;
achenia caneseently hairy]. Ait. ! Kew. {ed. 1) 3. p. 217 ; Smith, in Rees,
cycl. ; DC. prodr. 5. p. 336 ? (The additions to the character derived from
the specimen in herb. Banks.)
|8. ? landfolia : leaves elongated lanceolate, attenuate-acuminate ; racemes
pedunculate, somewhat compound or paniculate, numerous, all but
the lowermost longer than the leaves, forming an elongated panicle ; rays
rather small.
North America ? described from specimens of unknown origin, cultivated
in 1759 by Miller, and in the Kew Garden. Smith supposes that it may be
a variety of S. latifolia ; “ from which it differs -in its somewhat narrower
leaves, and much greater length of the upper clusters of flowers, which combine
to form a close panicle.” The figure he cites from Plukenet doubtless
belongs to S. latifolia ; and the plant cultivated as S. ambigua in the Berlin
Garden, and some others, is probably nothing but a state of that species.
But the original plant must be different, as the scales of the (perhaps 20-
flowered) involucre are lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, acute, and more imbricated.
If really of American origin, the plant we have doubtfully subjoined
is probably not specifically distinct from it.—The latter was collected on the
Yellow Mountain in North Carolina by Mr. M. A. Curtis. The angular
stem is apparently simple and 3 feet in length (the base is wanting in the
specimen) ; the flower-bearing portion a foot long, somewhat pubescent. The
leaves, instead of elliptical-lanceolate and abruptly narrowed into a short
winged petiole, as in the original S. ambigua (like a narrow-leaved var. of
S. latifolia), are elongated lanceolate, tapering gradually from near the middle
to the base, 4 to 5 inches long, less than an inch in width, thin, smooth and
glabrous, or with a few scattered hairs, sharply and rather finely serrate, except
the slender acuminate apex and near the base. Racemes 20 or more,
approximate, erect or somewhat spreading, more or less compound, naked at
the base (pedunculate); the lower about 3 inches in length but rather shorter
than the subtending leaves; the upper successively shorter, but longer than
the reduced narrowly lanceolate and nearly entire leaves: heads usually
crowded on the branches of the raceme, on short pedicels, or nearly sessile.
Scales of the involucre glabrous or minutely granular, similar to the original
S. ambigua, or perhaps a little broader. Achenia caneseently hairy.—I f we
mistake not, this is by no means an uncommon species in the mountains of
North Carolina, but we have only seen the living plant before the flowering
season.
* * Racemes terminal, erect, not secrnid, either simple and virgate, or co'mpovmd and
paniculate: leaves feather-veined.—Virgatse.
11. S. virgata (Michx.): glabrous throughout; stem virgate, simple,
very slender ; leaves somewhat fleshy, entire, with scabrous margins ; the
radical and lowest cauline oblong-spatulate or oblanceolate, often obscurely
serrate, petioled; the others small, appressed, lanceolate-oblong, sessile;
those of the attenuated upper part of the stem very small and bract-like ;
heads (middle-sized) numerous, in a very strict or spiciform compound raceme;
scales of the involucre linear-lanceolate, glabrous; rays 5—7, elongated
; achenia pubescent.—Michx. ! jl. 2. p. 117 ; Pursh, jl. 2. p. 538 ;
Nutt. ! gen. 2. p. 160 ; E ll.! sk. 2. p. 384,- DC. prodr. 5. p. 338.
Pine barrens, mostly in damp soil, New Jersey! to Florida! and Alabama!
Sept.—Oct.—(June to Oct., Ell.)—Stem 2-4 feet high, very strict
and simple, leafy throughout, but the leaves of the upper part of the stem
reduced to naere bracts (one-half to one-fourth of an inch in length), terminated
by a virgate compact raceme, 3-12 inches long, which is composed of
short approximate racemes, bearing 3—6 heads; the short peduncles and
slender pedicels appressed, glabrous, furnished with subulate bracts. The
general raceme is often more or less secund; and occasionally the inflorescence
is more compound and paniculate. Heads about 16-flowered. Exterior
scales of the involucre short and often subulate ; the inner rather acute.
Radical leaves 5-8 inches long, including the margined petiole, 6-12 lines
wide, obscurely serrulate, or not unfrequently quite entire.
_ 12. S. pulverulenta (Nutt.): minutely and softly puberulent; stem simple,
virgate, very leafy ; cauline leaves short, obovate-oblong, obscurely veined,
mostly entire, often mucronate-acute, attenuate at the base, sessile ; the radical
and lowermost oblong or spatulate, serrate, tapering into a petiole ; heads
numerous, crowded on the short peduncles, and disposed in a long and strict
compound raceme; scales of the involucre narrowly lanceolate, acute, appressed;
rays about 10, elongated; achenia glabrous.—Nutt.! gen. 2.
p. 161 ; Ell. sk. 2. p, 384 ; DC. prodr. 5. p. 338.
(3. peduncles somewhat elongated, and often spreading, forming an expanded
compound raceme.
Georgia and Florida, Baldwin. Alabama, Dr. Gates ! North Carolina,
Mr. Curtis ! Sept.—Stem 2-3 feet high, very strict and simple, terminating
in a narrow and somewhat spicate raceme (rarely more expanded and compound),
8—16 inches in length. Radical and lowest cauline leaves similar to
those of S. puberula; the others gradually diminishing from an inch and a
half to half an inch in length, and from 6 to 3 lines in breadth, obovate or oblong;
the lower often serrate. Heads as large as in S. puberula, but fewer-
(20-25)-flowered : the puberulent involucre nearly similar, but the scales
rather broader.—Distinguished from the too closely allied S. puberula by
the more manifest cinereous pubescence, the short and broad cauline leaves,
and the contracted virgate inflorescence; but in some specimens (var. /3.) the
lower peduncles are prolonged into racemes of considerable length.
v o l . ii.—26