wide; the wing of the petioles sinuate or pinnatifid. Heads large; the rays
an inch long, 10-15 in number, bright yellow; the corolla of the disk dull
yellow. Achenia large, striate.
72. CHRYSOGONUM. L in n .; Gcertn. fr . t. 174 ; DC.prodr. 5. p. 510.
Heads many-flowered ; the ray-flowers about 5, pistillate; those of the
disk sterile. Involucre double, each of about 5 scales; the exterior foliace-
ous, oblong, longer than the disk; the interior chartaceous, roundish, concave,
embracing the fertile flower in its axil. Receptacle flat; the linear
obtuse persistent chaff subtending the sterile flowers; 2 or 3 usually adherent
to the base of each inner involucral scale. Corolla of the disk cylindra-
ceous, 5-toothed. Style in the sterile flowers hispid above, undivided, or
sometimes 2-cleft at the apex. Achenia of the ray obovate, obcompressed,
4-angled, somewhat convex on the back, enclosed in a scale of the involucre;
of the disk linear, abortive. Pappus small, coroniform, 2-3-toothed, and
divided to the base on the inner side, persistent.—-A low tomentose-hirsute
perennial herb, nearly acaulescent when it begins to flower, producing several
stems, some of which are erect or ascending and floriferous, others prostrate
and stoloniferous. Leaves opposite, or clustered at the base, on long petioles,
ovate or spatulate, crenate. Peduncles solitary, simple, naked, at
first short, at length elongated. Flowers bright yellow.
C. Virginianum (Linn.)—Lam. ill. t. 713 ; Gcertn. fr . 2. p. 436, t. 174
(the pappus bad); Walt..' Car. p . 217 ; Michx. ! fl. 2. p . 148; Pursh!
fl. 2. p . 579 ; E ll.! sic. 2. p. 472, C. Virginianum & diotostephus, D C .! 1. c.
Diotostephus repens, Cass, in diet. sci. nat. 48. p . 453. Chrysanthemum
Virginianum, &c., Pluk. aim. t. 83, f . 4, t. 242, ƒ. 3.
Dry fertile soil, Maryland! to Florida! and Illinois! to Louisiana!
April-July.—We are confident that Cassini has founded two genera, and De
Candolle two species, upon one and the same plant. We have never «een a
pappus like Gsertner’s figure, nor exactly as Cassini describes his Diotostephus;
but it is almost always as stated by Michaux and Elliott, that is,
3-toothed; and the middle tooth is often shorter, or irregularly crenate, and
probably sometimes nearly wanting, when it would accord with Cassini’s
character. The plant, when it commences flowering, presents only a tuft of
radical leaves (with rather short petioles), and a single head on a short radical
peduncle ; but the succeeding leaves are borne on elongated petioles, the
ascending stems at length 6-12 inches high, and the peduncles which are
always short before the heads expand, often attain the length of 2 or 3 inches.
When old, the leaves become rather glabrous.
Div. 3. S i i p h i e j :, D C.—F ertile and sterile flowers in the same heads;
the former (3-20) ligulate, the rays deciduous; the latter numerous, central,
tubular. Fertile achenia obcompressed, sometimes winged, not corticate,
destitute of pappus, or mostly 2-toothed or 2-awned. Anthers united.
73. SILPHIUM. L in n .; Gcertn. fr . t. 171; Schkukr, handb. t. 262. f
Heads many-flowered; the ray-flowers numerous, pistillate, the ligules in
a single series, but the flat ovaries in 2-3 rows; those of the disk tubular,
sterile. Involucre broadly campanulate ; the scales oppressed at the base,
more or less spreading or loose and foliaceous at. the summit, imbricated in
several series; the innermost (those next the achenia) very small and chaffy.
Receptacle small, flat, or somewhat turbinate when old ; the chaff linear,
flat, or slightly involute around the sterile ovaries. Corolla of the ray with
an elongated spreading ligule ; of the disk cylindrical; the teeth very short,
somewhat thickened and glandular, often pubescent or hairy externally.
Style in the sterile flowers undivided, much elongated, hispid. Achenia of
the ray broad and flat, obcompressed, imbricated in 3—4 series, surrounded
with a wing, which is notched at the summit, and usually confluent with 2
callous, subulate, or somewhat awn-like (often nearly obsolete) teeth, which
represent the pappus; those of the disk abortive, slender, with an obsolete
coroniform pappus.—Stout perennial herbs (natives of the United States and
Texas), mostly hispid or scabrous, with a copious resinous juice. Leaves
alternate, opposite, or verticillate, entire, serrate, or lobed. Heads (large)
corymbose, panicled, or solitary. Flowers yellow.
* Stem terete, virgate or nearly naked: leaves large, alternate, or radical and on long
petioles, often sinuate, lobed, or pinnately parted.
1. £. laciniatum (Linn.): hispid with white spreading hairs ; leaves pinnately
parted, mostly petioled, but dilated and clasping at the base; the segments
lanceolate or linear, sinuate-toothed, incised, or pinnatifid, or sometimes
entire, acute ; heads (very large) few, racemose-spieate; scales of the
involucre ovate, hispid and ciliate, produced into a long rigid and usually
squarrose acuminate appendage ; achenia orbicular-obovate, with a manifest
and scarious wing, deeply emarginate.—Lin n .! spec. 2. p . 919 ; Linn. f .
dec. p. 5, t. 3 ; A it.! Kew. (ed. 1) 3. p . 267 ; Michx.! Jl. 2. p. 145 ;
Pursh? f . 2. p. 577 ; Jacq. f . eclog. 1. t. 90; DC..' prodr. 5. p. 512;
Hook, compan. to hot. mag. 1. p. 99. (excl. syn. E. pinnatif.) S. spicatum,
Poir. diet. 5. p . 157. S. gummiferum, Ell. sic. 2. p. 460.
/3. cauline leaves numerous towards the lower part of the stem, sessile
and clasping, ovate-lanceolate, laciniate-pinnatifid.
Prairies from Iowa ! Wisconsin ! Missouri! Illinois ! and Ohio ! to Kentucky
! Alabama!'Louisiana ! Arkansas! and Texas! 13. Prairies of Alabama,
Mr. Buckley! July-Sept.—Root thick. Plant exuding a copious
resin, 3-11 feet high. Stem simple, striate-grooved and nearly glabrous at
the base, somewhat naked above, clothed, as also the young heads, veins of
the leaves &c., with large very white jointed hairs arising from rigid papillae.
Lower leaves 12-30 inches long, often bipinnatifid, with an ovate circumscription,
sometimes lanceolate an d : simply pinnately parted, with the segments
narrow and rather remote, either entire or toothed. Heads frequently
2 inches in diameter, without including the rays, which usually exceed the
involucre : the terminal one flowers earliest, and 2 or 4 others appear later
in the axils of often remote bracts, or of the upper leaves, either sessile or
peduncled. The var. /3., which came from the same region as Elliott’s S.
gummiferum, does not however so well accord with his description as the
ordinary S. laciniatum, which varies greatly in foliage. In this variety the
incisions of the cauline leaves do not reach more than half-way to the midrib.—
Rosin-weed.
2. S. terebinthinaceum (Linn.): stem and peduncles glabrous; leaves
ovate and ovate-oblong, mostly cordate at the base, sharply serrate-toothed,