2. B. tomentosa: herbaceous, stem softly canescent with closely appressed
woolly tomentum, simple or branched; leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, green
and minutely pubescent above, white and finely tomentose beneath, crenate;
the uppermost cordate and sessile ; the lower ones petioled; heads in small
corymbs, on slender peduncles.—Silphium tomentosum 6c pumilum, Pursh,
fl. 2. p. 579. S. reticulatum, Pursh, l. c. ? Polymnia Caroliniana, Poir.
diet. 5. 7. 505.
a. stem erect or ascending, simple or sparingly branched; heads few on
elongated naked pedicels; leaves mostly obtuse; the lower oblong, often
acute and somewhat irregularly toothed at the base.—Silphium pumilum,
Michx.! ft. 2. p. 146 (a dwarf state); E ll.! sk. 2. p. 469 ; DC. ! prodr. 5.
p. 512. Berlandiera tomentosa, Nutt. ! 1. c.
fi. (dealbata) stem mostly branched, and, with the lower surface of the
more numerous cordate-ovate often acutish leaves clothed with a very white
fine tomentum; heads more numerous, corymbose, on shorter peduncles.—
B. pumila, Nutt.! 1. c.
y. stem taller, branched, at length scarcely tomentose; upper surface of
the leaves scabrous.
Dry pine barrens and plains ; a Georgia ! to Florida ! /3. Arkansas, Nut-
tall! Texas, Drummond! y. Western Louisiana, Dr. Leavenworth ! May—
Aug.—Stem varying from scarcely a foot to 3 feet high. Leaves 1J-2, the
lowest often 3-4 inches long, and 1 to 2 wide. Pedicels and involucre tomentose.—
When old, the soft tomentum is more or less deciduous, and the
stem often branched. The var. y. is in this state, and approaches the preceding.
The var. p. appears to be an exclusively Western plant, and is
larger, more leafy, (tec. If it prove a distinct species, it will require a new
name, since both S. pumilum and S. tomentosum were founded on the
species from the Atlantic States. We have adopted the latter of these spe
cifie names, because the plant, although small for a Silphium, is one of the
largest of the genus to which we have removed it.
3. B. indsa: herbaceous, minutely velvety-canescent throughout; stem
(short?) branching; leaves lanceolate-oblong, mostly petioled, coarsely and
very irregularly incised and toothed, deeply sinuate and pinnatifid towards
the base ; the lobes and teeth short, obtuse ; heads usually solitary terminating
the branches, on elongated peduncles. Silphium Nuttallianum, Torr.!
in ann. lye. New York, 2. p. 216, as to the plant collected by Dr. James; but
not the Florida plant of Nuttall.
On the Arkansas or Platte, Dr. James !—The specimen is only the upper
portion of a stem, or perhaps a branch, clothed throughout with a very fine
and close whitish velvety tomentum ; but the upper surface of the leaves (2
inches or more in length) less canescent. Except that the stem is leafy, it
considerably resembles B. lyrata, Benlh.! pi. Hartw., which is, however,
quite distinct from this or the following species.
4. B. subacaulis (Nutt.): minutely strigose-canescent, at first acaulescent;
leaves (radical) deeply sinuate-pinnatifid, often lyrate, somewhat petioled;
the lobes toothed or crenate ;__peduncles (scapes) elongated, naked, bearing a
single head.—B. subacaule, Nutt.! 1. e. Silphium subacaule, Nutt.! in
Sill. jour. 5. p . 301; D C .! prodr. 5. p. 512. S. Nuttallianum, Torr. ! 1. c.
as to the syn.
p. stems short, at length branching, leafy below ; radical, leaves oblong ;
the cauline oblong-spatulate, somewhat petioled ; all obtuse, lyrate, or sparingly
sinuate, or nearly undivided ; peduncles terminal, very long.
East Florida, Mr. Ware ! (Nuttall), Dr. Burrows ! Dr. Leavenworth !
Georgia, Le Conte! p. Florida, Dr. Leavenworth ! May-Aug. ?—Radical
leaves about 3 inches long, clustered, rather rough, particularly the upper
surface, mostly alternately sinuate-pinnatifid, often with an oblong undivided
terminal lobe. Scapes, or peduncles, slender, 6-8 inches long. Head
as large as in B. tomentosa.
75. ENGELMANNIA. Torr. Gray, mss., in Nutt, trans. Amer. phil.
soc. (n. ser.) 7. p. 343.
Heads many-flowered; the ray-flowers equal in number to the inner
scales of the involucre (8-10), and situated in their axils, ligulate, pistillate;
those of the disk tubular, sterile. Scales of the involucre imbricated in about
3 series, coriaceo-chartaceous, broadly oval or obovate, appressed, the exterior
shortest; all abruptly narrowed into a foliaceous lanceolate or linear
spreading appendage, the exterior exceeding the scale itself in length. Receptacle
flat; the chaff persistent, chartaceous, with foliaceous and hairy
tips, partly involute and enclosing the sterile flowers;.the outer series lanceolate,
acute, two firmly adherent to the base of each inner involucral scale ;
the others very narrowly linear, rather obtuse. Corolla of the ray with an
oblong exserted sessile ligule; of the disk dilated upwards, 5-toothed, the
teeth somewhat hairy. Style in the sterile flowers undivided, hispid. Aehe-
nia of the ray equal in size to the concave inner involucral scales to which
they are applied, oval-obovate, obcompressed, convex and carinate externally,
flat or concave and one-ridged on the inside, scabrous-pubescent, not
winged or toothed, crowned with two small scarious lanceolate concave marce-
scent squamellse, which are more or less united at the base, hispid and fringed;
those of the disk filiform, abortive, with a minute coroniform pappus.—A perennial
branching rough and hirsute herb, with branching stems, corymbose-
paniculate at the summit, and bearing several rather small heads on slender
peduncles. Leaves alternate, strigose, oblong or ovate-lanceolate, irregularly
pinnatifid, with the segments lanceolate or linear (the lower longest
and divaricate), sessile ; the radical petioled and bipinnatifid. Rays yellow,
tardily deciduous, pubescent externally.
E . pinnatifida (Torr. & Gray, 1. c.)—Silphium, n. sp. (Nutt.) Torr. in
ann. lye. New York, 2. p. 215.
On the Canadian, Dr. James ! Red River, Arkansas, Nuttall! Dr. Leavenworth!
Texas, Drummond /—Plant 1-3 feet high. _ Leaves 2-5 inches
long. Heads about as large as in Polymnia Canadensis : tlje involucre sub-
globose. The base of the aehenia coheres with the base of the involucral
and the two adjacent chaffy scales, but at length it separates without tearing
away the margin : the exterior coat (calyx-tube) is separable.—This
genus, intermediate between Silphium and Parthenium, is dedicated to
our esteemed correspondent, Dr. George Engelmann, of St. Louis, Missouri,
who has for several years assiduously studied the plants of Missouri,
Arkansas, <fec., and made valuable contributions to many European collections,
as well as to this work.
Div. 4. P a r t h e k i e j e , DC.—Fertile and sterile flowers in the same
heads ; the former (several) ligulate, the rays persistent or marcescent; the
latter central, tubular. Fertile aehenia obcompressed, not corticate or winged,
usually with a callous margin. Pappus none, or 2-squamellate. Anthers
scarcely united.