13. S. sempérvirens, L. Smooth and stout (1--8° high); leaves lanceolate, slightly clasping, or the lower ones lanceolate-oblong, obscurely triple-nerved; racemes short, in an open or contracted panicle.--Salt marshes, or rocks on the shore, Maine to Va.--Heads showy; the golden rays 7--10. Varies, in less brackish swamps, with thinner elongated linear-lanceolate leaves, tapering to each end, and more erect racemes in a narrower panicle. [=] 2. _Heads small, in a narrow virgate or thyrsoid panicle; scales thin, acute; leaves nearly entire._ 14. S. strícta, Ait. _Very smooth_ throughout; _stem strict and simple, wand-like_ (2--4° high), slender, beset with small and entire appressed lanceolate-oblong thickish leaves, gradually reduced upward to mere bracts, the lowest oblong-spatulate; _heads crowded in a very narrow compound spicate raceme_; rays 5--7. (S. virgata, _Michx._)--Damp pine barrens, N. J. and southward. 15. S. pubérula, Nutt. _Stem_ (1--3° high, simple or branched) _and panicle minutely hoary; stem-leaves lanceolate, acute, tapering to the base_, smoothish; the lower wedge-lanceolate and _sparingly toothed, heads_ very numerous and _crowded in compact short racemes forming a prolonged and dense_ narrow or pyramidal _panicle; scales linear-awl-shaped_, appressed; rays about 10.--Sandy soil, Maine to Va. and southward, mostly near the coast. [=] 3. _Heads middle-sized, in a thyrsoid panicle; involucral scales rather firm, obtuse; leaves entire or little serrate, smooth._ 16. S. uliginòsa, Nutt. _Smooth_ nearly throughout; stem simple, strict (2--3° high); _leaves lanceolate_, pointed, the lower tapering into winged petioles, partly sheathing at the base, sparsely serrulate or entire; _racemes much crowded and appressed in a dense wand-like panicle_; scales linear-oblong; rays 5--6, small. (S. stricta, _Ait._)--Peat-bogs, Maine to Penn., Minn., and northward. Root-leaves 6--10´ long. Flowers earlier than most species, beginning in July. 17. S. speciòsa, Nutt. Stem stout (3--6° high), smooth; _leaves thickish, smooth_ with rough margins, _oval or ovate_, slightly serrate, the uppermost oblong-lanceolate, the lower contracted into a margined petiole; _heads_ somewhat crowded _in numerous erect racemes, forming an ample pyramidal or thyrsiform panicle_; peduncles and pedicels rough-hairy; scales of the cylindrical involucre oblong; rays about 5, large.--Var. ANGUSTÀTA, Torr. & Gray, is a dwarf form, with the racemes short and clustered, forming a dense interrupted or compound spike.--Copses, Maine to Minn., and southward.--A very handsome species; the lower leaves 4--6´ long and 2--4´ wide in the larger forms. [=] 4. _Heads very small in slender spreading secund clusters forming a mostly short and broad panicle; leaves entire or nearly so._