Achenia obcompressed, flat, wingless, glabrous, abruptly produced into a
filiform beak. Pappus of copious very soft and white capillary bristles in
several series, fugacious.—Caulescent herbs (chiefly of the northern hemisphere)
; with entire or pinnatifid leaves, and paniculate heads. Flowers
yellow, blue, purple, or white, often variable in the same species.
In all the following species, the heads are about 20-flowered; and the achenia
brownish or blackish, very obscurely scabrous-rugulose, one-nerved in the middle of
each face, and sometimes with two obsolete nerves towards the margin. Nuttall
places them all in his Galathenium ; but we cannot comprehend how this portion
of the proposed genus is to be distinguished from Lactuca, nor the remainder from
Mulgedium; nor why the author did not refer to it his own Mulgedium pulchellum,
which is exactly intermediate between Mulgedium and Lactuca.
1. L . graminifolia (Michx.): stem simple, virgate; leaves elongated,
sessile; the cauline narrowly linear, acute, entire; the lowest and radical
sparingly runeinate-pinnatifid or toothed in the middle, linear and elongated
towards the base and apex ; heads in a narrow loose and leafless panicle;
achenia elliptical, rather longer than the beak; flowers purple, varying to
white, or yellow [—Michx.! fi. 2. p. 85; Ell. sk. 2. p. .253 ; Hook..'
compan. to hot. mag. 1 . p. 100 ; DC. prodr. 7. p. ] 34. L. graminea,
Spreng. syst. 3. p . 659. Galathenium graminifolium, Nutt, in trans. Amer.
phil. sac. 1. 6i 7. p. 443. G. salicifolium, Nutt.! 1. c. as to the spec. “ Florida,
IVare,” in herb. acad. Philad.
a. glabrous, or the midrib of the lower leaves often sparingly hirsute.
fi. lower leaves and base of the stem hirsute.
Dry soil, South Carolina to Alabama ! and Western Louisiana ! April-
Sept.— (D or U ? Stem 2-3 feet high, slender. Lower leaves 6-10 inches
long, 3-6 lines wide; the radical usually with one or 2 pairs of runcinate
lobes. 2
2. L . elongata (Muhl.): stem tall and stout, simple or paniculate at the
summit; leaves partly clasping, pale beneath, the upper usually lanceolate
andentire; the lower runeinate-pinnatifid; heads in an elongated leafless
panicle ; achenia oval, rather longer than the" beak ; flowers light yellow,
varying to purple.
a. longifolia: glabrous or nearly so; upper leaves elongated lanceolate
and often entire ; the lower runeinate-pinnatifid, with the lobes lanceolate,
acute or acuminate, entire or slightly repand-toothed; the terminal lobe elongated
; flowers mostly light yellow.—L. longifolia, Michx.! f i . 2. p. 85. L.
elongata, Muhl. in Willd. spec. 3. p. 1523 ; Pursh, fl. 2. p. 500 ; Ell. !
sk. 2. p. 252; Hook.! fi. Bor.-Am. 1. p. 296 ; Darlingt.! fl. best. p .
442; DC.! prodr. 7. p. 137. L. Caroliniana, Walt. Car. p. 193? Galathenium
elongatum, Nutt. ! 1. c.
i8. integrifolia: glabrous; leaves all or nearly all undivided, lanceolate,
acute or acuminate, entire or repand-denticulate; the lowest occasionally
pinnatifid ; flowers light yellow, ochroleucous, tinged with purple, or bluish-
purple.—L. integrifolia, Bigel. ! f i . Bost. ed. 2. p. 287 ; DC. prodr. 7. p .
137, not of Nutt. L. sagittifolia, E ll.! sk. 2. p . 253 ; DC. 1. c. Galathenium
integrifolium, Nutt. 1. c. G. salicifolium, Nutt.! 1. c., as to Pennsyl.
specim. herb. Schweinitz.
y. sanguinea: smaller; leaves all or nearly all runcinate; mostly hirsute
pubescent (as well as the stem) either throughout or on the midrib beneath
; the lobes usually shorter and broader, irregularly toothed, the terminal
one not prolonged; flowers yellow-purple (Muhl. mss.), dark-red with a
yellowish centre (Oakes, mss.), saffron-color, or purple (branches and involucre
often purplish).—L. hirsuta, Muhl. cat.; Nutt. gen. 2. p. 124.
L. villosa, Muhl.fi. Lancastr. ined. L. sanguinea, Bigel.! fi. Bost. ed. 2. p.
134; DC. 1. c. Galathenium sanguineum, Nutt. ! in trans. Amer. phil. soc.
h c. G. Floridanum, Nutt.! 1. c., fide herb. acad. Philad.
e. albifiora: glabrous, “ flowers white ” ; otherwise as in var. y.
Rich damp soils, fields apd borders of thickets, Canada! and Saskatcha-
wan! to Georgia! and Louisiana! y. Massachusetts! and Upper Mississippi!
to Louisiana! and Texas! in more exposed places and sterile soil.
<5. Western Louisiana, Dr. Hale ! July-Aug.— (g)? Stem 2-8 feet high,
hollow. Leaves mostly large, very variable ; all the above varieties passing
into each other.— Wild Lettuce. Fire-weed.
t Doubtful species.
3. L. Ludoviciana (DC. 1. c .): very smooth (3-5 feet high); leaves all
runcinate, retrorsely and sharply toothed ; the cauline partly clasping; panicle
divaricate, the peduncles and involucre naked; pappus conspicuously stipitate;
flowers yellow, Nutt.—Sonchus Ludovicianus, Nutt. gen. 2. p. 125. Galathenium
Ludovicianum, Nutt, in trans. Amer. phil. soc., as to syn.
Moist places in the open plains around Fort Mandan on the Missouri, Nuttall.
June.—This is entirely unknown to us. May it not be a state of the
polymorphous Lactuca elongata? But a specimen in the herbarium of the
Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia (New Orleans, Mr. Trudeau!)
ticketed by Mr. Nuttall ‘Mulgedium Ludovicianum’, is M. Floridanum,
wanting the lower leaves.
L. Canadensis (Linn. 1. c.), as to the description, and especially as regards the
syn. “ L. Canadensis altissima angustifolia, flore pallide luteo.” Town. inst. p. 474,
(which is perhaps the foundation of the species) probably relates to the common
Lactuca elongata; to which, indeed, the very imperfect specimen in the Linnsean
herbarium may belong, although it is marked by Smith as a Sonchus.
198. MULGEDIUM. Cass. diet. 33 (1824),p. 296; Less. syn.p. 142; DC.
Agathyrsus, Don (1829).
Heads many-flowered. Involucre calyculate-imbricated ; that is, with the
exterior scales much shorter than the others and more or less imbricated.
Receptacle naked, foveolate. Achenia glabrous, compressed, striate with a
few nerves or ribs on each side, the summit contracted into a more or less
evident thickish beak of the same texture with the body of the achenium, which
is expanded at the apex into a ciliate disk. Pappus of copious somewhat
scabrous capillary bristles in one or more series, rather soft and deciduous,
either bright white or tawny.—Caulescent herbs (mostly of the northern hemisphere);
with pinnatifid or undivided leaves, and racemose or usually
paniculate heads. Flowers blue, rarely dull bluish-white or ochroleucous.
§ 1 . Pappus bright white: corolla blue or purple.—E umulgedium, DC.
* Achenia tapering into a slender beak: involucre imbricated.
1 . M. pulchellum (Nutt.): glabrous, pale' or glaucescent; stem simple or
sparingly branched; leaves oblong-lanceolate or linear, sessile, mucronate
entire, or lower runeinate-pinnatifid; heads several, racemose-corymbose •
the erect peduncles furnished with subulate scale-like bracteoles; scales of
vol. ii.—63