* * * Stem square, at least below: leaves all opposite, connate, either directly or by
winged petioles.
11. S. perfoliatum (Linn.): stem stout, square, the branches often nearly
terete; leaves large, ovate or ovate-oblong, thin ; the lower ovate-deltoid,
coarsely toothed, on winged connate petioles ; the upper often nearly entire,
connate-perfoliate and forming a concave disk; heads trichotomous-corym-
bose, the central on a long peduncle; scales of the involucre ovate, obtuse,
squarrose-spreading; achenia broadly obovate, winged, emarginate.—L in n .!
spec. (ed. 2) 2. p. 1301; Gouan, hort. Monsp. p. 462; Hook. hot. mag. t.
3354. S. tetragonum & S. scabrum, Mosncli. S. connatum, Michx.! fl. 2.
p . 146.—Varies with the stem, branches, involucre, &c. smooth and glabrous,
the leaves somewhat scabrous (S. perfoliatum of authors); sometimes very
scabrous above, and minutely and softly pubescent beneath; or with the
stem hirsute or hispid, at least above, with deflexed hairs, and the leaves
often hairy (S. connatum, Linn. mant. p. 574; Willd. spec. 3. p. 2332;
Pursh, fl. 2. p. 578; D C .! prodr. 5. p. 514): a state with the exterior
scales of the involucre larger and more foliaceous is S. conjunctum, Willd.
enum. p . 933. As to the achenia, these are frequently obcordate-emarginate,
the extremities of the wings being rounded and not at all produced (S. perfoliatum,
DC.! 1. c.) ; or these are produced into 2 short acute or triangular
teeth (S. Homemanni, DC.! 1. c., which, as to pubescence &c. is intermediate
between S. perfoliatum & S. connatum of authors), or into sharp lobes
producing a deep narrow notch, as is represented in Schkuhr, handb. t. 262.
But all these forms are so variable as scarcely to admit of being distinguished
as varieties, much less as species.
Banks of streams, &e. Michigan! Illinois! and Ohio! to Kentucky!
Tennessee! and the mountainous portion of the Southern States! July—
Sept.—Stem 4-6 feet high.* Leaves 6-12 inches long, 4-8 broad; the radical
somewhat cordate, on margined petioles; the upper connate either by a
very broad or somewhat narrowed base ; those of the branches sometimes
disjoined. Heads large ; the rays 15-30.—Cup-Plant.
S. erythroumlon (Bendi. in Spreng, syst. 3. p. 630): “ stem 4-angled, glabrous;
leaves opposite, cordate-lanceolate, acute, unequally toothed, very scabrous; the
winged petioles perfoliate ; scales of the involucre oblong, rather acute,” also seems
to be a variety of S. perfoliatum.
74. BERLANDIERA. DC. prodr. 5. p. 517; De Less. ic. sei. 4. t. 26.
Species of Silphium, DC. fy authors.
Heads many-flowered ; the ray-flowers pistillate, ligulate, equal in number
to the inner series of involucral scales (5-8, rarely 12), and situated in
their axils ; those of the disk Jubular, sterile, partly enclosed by the somewhat
foliaceous and cucullate upwardly dilated and obtuse chaffy scales of
the receptacle, two of which are adherent to the base of each inner scale of
the involucre and persistent, the others borne on the margin and depressed
summit of the small somewhat turbinate receptacle; the central flowers occasionally
somewhat abortive ? and with narrower chaff. • Scales of the
spreading involucre foliaceous, in 3 series ; the exterior 3-4, oblong or oval,
smallest; the second 4 or 5, mostly obovate; the innermost (usually 5-8)
largest, dilated-obovate or rhomboidal, membranaceo-chartaceous, reticulated.
Corolla'of the ray with an oblong subsessile spreading ligule; of the disk
cylindraceous, 5-toothed; the teeth hairy externally. Style in the sterile
flowers undivided, elongated and hispid above. Achenia of the ray in a single
series, flat, obcompressed, obovate, wingless, not toothed or notched at the
summit, one-nerved on the outer, one-ridged and canescently pubescent on
the inner surface, each more or less strongly coherent with the flat involucral
scale to which it corresponds and falling away with it, partly covered by the
chaff of the two attached sterile flowers; the pappus of 2 minute and caducous
setose teeth or short awns : the abortive achenia of the disk linear or filiform,
with an obscure coroniform pappus.—Perennial canescent or velvety-tomen-
tose herbs or suffrutescent plants (natives of the Southern United States,
Texas, and Northern Mexico), not resiniferous ; with mostly solitary (middle-
sized) pedunculate heads terminating the terete stem or paniculate-corymbose
branches; the involucre and summit of the chaff usually canescently
pubescent. Leaves alternate, cordate, ovate or oblong, and crenate, sinuate,
or pinnatifid, thin, veiny. Rays yellow, pubescent externally. Corolla
of the disk and anthers sprinkled with reddish resinous globules.
This genus, although well-marked inhabit, is mainly distinguished from Silphium
by its single series of wingless achenia, adherent to the large interior involucral
scales; and,, Including as it does all the tomentose and canescent species of Silphium,
it leaves that genus better defined in habit and character. It is singular that De Candolle,
-who founded the genus upon a Texan plant, and mentions its affinity on the
one hand to Melampodium, and on the other to Polymnia, should not have remarked
its closer alliance with Chrysogonum and especially with Silphium (from which the
receptacle scarcely differs), nor have noticed the adhesion of the achenia to the
scales ; a character first pointed out by Mr. Bentham, in his B. lyrata of Mexico,
but which occurs in all the species. As we find a corolla, stamens, &c. in all the
disk-flowers, we suspect that De Candolle may have mistaken for abortive flowers
some of the central abortive ovaries, from which the corolla falls at an early period.
rS-Since our account of this genus was prepared, Mr. Nuttall, who had established a
new genus upon these plants, adopted at our suggestion the name of Berlandiera,
but with the appended sectional appellation of Silphiastrum. His B. longifolia,
however, is doubtless the original B. T exana.
1. B. Texana (DC.! 1. c .) : herbaceous (suffrutescent DC. ) ; branches and
peduncles hirsute with jointed often purplish hairs ; leaves oblong-ovate, cor-
• date, simply or doubly crenate, minutely hispid-scabrous above, canescently
pubescent or hairy beneath; the lowermost petioled ; the others closely sessile;
heads somewhat corymbose.—B. longifolia, Nutt.! in trans. Amer.
phil. soc. 1. c. p. 342.
ft. betoniccefolia: leaves all petioled, cordate-ovate, deeply and coarsely
crenate ; peduncles clothed with jointed purplish hairs.—Silphium beloniei-
folium, Hook. ! compan. to hot. mag. 1. p. 99.
In woods., Texas, Berlandier ! Western Louisiana, Dr. Hale! Western
Arkansas, Nuttall! ft- New Orleans ? Drummond.—Most of the specimens
from Dr. Hale (which do not appear suffruticose) have the peduncles and
upper part of the stem clothed with purplish hairs (colored by the deposition
of a resinous matter), just as Hooker describes his Silphium betonicifolium;
but the upper leaves are all sessile, as in De Candolle’s plant, inclining to
lanceolate-ovate, an inch or an inch and a half in length; the uppermost
often acute : but those at the base of the stem are about 4 inches long, obtuse,
in form very like those of a Betonica, doubly and incisely crenate, on petioles
about an inch long. -
vox,, n.—36