investing the ovary and fruit. Tube of the calyx coherent with the ovary;
the limb cup-shaped or discoid. Limb of the corolla 4-cleft. Stamens 4.
Stigma longitudinal.—Biennial erect stout herbs (natives of Europe and
Middle Asia), hairy or prickly. Leaves opposite, often connate at the base,
undivided or laciniate. Heads large, oblong or roundish; the expansion of
the flowers commèncing about the middle and proceeding in opposite directions
! Corolla pale purple, yellowish, or whitish.
1. D. sylvestris (Mill.): stem, with the midrib of the leaves and involucre
pncklv, angled ; leaves lanceolate-oblong, crenate-toothed; the uppermost
lanceolate, mostly entire ; leaves of the involucre long and slender, pungent
curved upwards, longer than the oblong head ; chaff of the receptacle taperg
®etac,eous 5exl^ 6 awn"llke appendage, with a straight point.—
M ill-dut. no 2 • Jacq. f l-Austr. t. 402; FI. Dan. t. 965 ; Èngl. bot. t.
l ° 3m . PUrSh’ 1- P' % f TorrJ X- P- 164 > Darlingt. I f f . Cest.
Fields and road-sides, not uncommon in the Northern and Middle States;
naturalized. July-Aug— Corolla pale purple, pubescent— Wild Teasel.
D. Fullonumthe Fuller’s Teasel,is sometimes cultivated, but it has never become
naturalized in this country.
O rder LXXVI. COMPOSITE. Vaill.; Linn.; Adans.
Synantherae, Rich.—Syngenesis, Linn. sex. syst.—Coinpositiflone, Garin.
Flowers collected into a dense head (compound flower of the older
authors) upon a common receptacle, surrounded by an involucre.
Tube of the calyx coherent with the ovary and undistinguishable from
i t ; the limb (called pappus) composed o f bristles or scales, &c., or
very rarely foliaceous, often wanting or reduced to a margin. Corolla
composed of mostly 5 united petals ; either ligulate or tubular, in the
latter case with a valvate aestivation ; the tube generally furnished
with 5 nerves (or more properly 10 united in pairs), which extend
from the base to the sinuses, where they divide, a branch coursing
along or near each margin to the apex of the lobes. Stamens as
many as the lobes of the corolla and alternate with them : the filaments
(distinct or united above) inserted into the tube : anthers linear,
coherent by their margins into a cylinder (syngenesious). Ovary 1-
celled, containing a single erect anatropous ovule: style (usually
undivided in the sterile flowers) 2 -cleft; the lobes or branches (incorrectly
called stigmas) various in form, mostly flattish within, often
furnished with collecting h a irs; the proper stigmas occupying their
inner margins, in the form of glandular slightly prominent lines.
Fruit an indehiscent dry 1-seeded pericarp (achenium), crowned with
the limb of the calyx or pappus. Seed destitute of albumen. Radicle
sh o rt: cotyledons flat or plano-conv.ex.—Herbs, rarely shrubs or trees
(forming about one-tenth of phanerogamous vegetation); with alternate
or opposite sometimes divided or lobed exstipulate leaves. Branches
often corymbose, terminated by the. heads, the central ones earliest
developed. Flowers in each head expanding successively from the
margin (or lower portion) to the centre or apex, either all of the same
color (homochromous), or the marginal ones different from those of the
disk (heterochromous), the latter in this case almost always yellow;
either perfect, polygamous, or diclinous.
There are several terms nearly peculiar to this order, or employed in a particular
sense. The head has been termed by different authors the Calathidium, Anthodium,
or Cephalanthium; the involucre has received the name of Common calyx, Pericli-
nium, <S-c.; and .the receptacle has been Galled the Phorantkium, Clinanthium, or
Rachis: we have employed none of these terms. The head is said to be homogcv-
mous, when all the flowers axe perfect; or. heterogamous, when the marginal ones are
pistillate or neutral, and the others perfect or staminate: it is termed discoid, when
the corolla is tubular throughout; ligulate, when all the corollas are ligulate ; radiate,
when the marginal ones only are ligulate and the others tubular ; and falsely discoid,
when the corollas are all bilabiate : they are monoecious, when the staminate and pistillate
flowers occupy the same heads; heterocephalous, when they occupy different
heads upon the same individual; dioecious, when in separate heads upon different individuals.
The modified leaves of the involucre are called scales._ The receptacle,
which is the axis of a contracted or depressed spike (and therefore very properly
termed rachis, by Lessing), is said to be paleaceous or chaffy, when all the flowers
are subtended by chaffy scales (bracteoles, Lessing), similar to the innermost scales
of the involucre; semipaleaceous, when only partly furnished with chaffy scales, and
epaleaceous or naked, when destitute of these scales: it is alveolate, when each flower
is surrounded at the base with a very short scaly ring or involucel, so as to present
an appearance like honey-comb when the achenia are removed; fimbrillate, when
the margins of the alveoli are irregularly lacerate or bristly ; areolate when a slight
or obsolete, often pentagonal, border or line surrounds the base of each flower. The
anthers are usually more or less prolonged, at the summit into a membranous appendage
(appendicvlate) ; and sometimes each lobe or cell bears a subulate or seti-
form appendage at the base, when they are said to be caudate. The achenia are
articulated with the receptacle, either sessile or stipitate: they are sometimes rostrate,
or with the summit prolonged into a beak ; in which case the pappus is often,
but incorrectly, said to be stipitate,—For the sake of greater conveniences the study
of this vast family, we introduce a synopsis of its leading divisions; and give, at
the commencement of each tribe, a conspectus of its subdivisions and genera, so
far as they are represented in the flora of North America. This is the more necessary,
since the student may at first meet with some difficulty in the application of the
leading technical characters of the tribes, derived from the form of the styles and
stigmas.
CONSPECTUS OF THE TRIBES.
Suborder I. TUBULIFLOR.dE.—Corolla of the perfect flowers tubular, and
regularly 5- (rarely 3-4-) toothed or lobed.
Tribe I. Vernoniaceje. Style of tire perfect flowers cylindraceous ; the branches
usually elongated and subulate, hispid throughout; the stigmatic lines not
extending beyond their middle.
Tribe II. Eupatoriaceje. Style of the perfect flowers cylindraceous; the branches
elongated, obtuse or clavate, externally puberulent or papillose towards the
summit; the stigmatic lines obscure, terminating near their middle.