EUPATORIUM PETALODIUM Britton.
Perennial, bright green. Stems erect, 3-7 dm. tall, simple below, corymbosely branched above, somewhat rough with rigid hairs ; leaves mainly opposite (a few of the upper ones alternate), oblong to lanceolate, 2-8 cm. long, obtuse or rarely acutish, bluntly serrate or crenate-serrate, except the entire more or less cuneate base, glabrous or sparingly pubescent on the nerves be neath, sessile; peduncles and pedicels pilose ; involucres trumpet shaped, 9-10 mm. high, the bracts linear-spatulate, the outer ones abruptly acuminate, the inner ones mucronate, slightly surpassing the flowers, petal-like, white ; corolla 3 mm. long, the segments ovate, spreading ; pappus about equalling the corolla ; styles ex serted ; achenes black, nearly 3 mm. long, 5-angled.
In dry pine barrens, Florida. Summer and fall.
Florida: Chapman ; Duval County, N. E. Florida, Curtiss, no. 1 190 ; near Jacksonville, Curtiss, nos. 4437 and 5162.
A showy species hitherto confused with L':upatoriuni album and not yet found without the State of Florida. The general habit of the species is that of its nearest relative, E. album, but in place of an acute leaf-blade there is an obtuse apex. I fowever, the crucial character lies in the inner involucral bracts ; these, instead of being long-acuminate, are lincar-spatulate and conspicuously mucronate, the dilated portions of a white or creamy-white color.