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VOL. 1v.] Contributions to Western Botany. 263 
pubescent, leaves fascicled at the top of the short branches of the 
root; heads one-half inch high, almost sessile and surpassed by 
the leaves, peduncles not lengthening with age; scales narrowly 
oblong, the outer the narrower, rounded at apex, the hyaline and 
lacerate margin narrow, midrib green; scales in about five ranks 
and the outer very short, inner scales one and one-half lines 
wide and shorter than the pappus; rays three lines longer than 
the disk, purple, three-quarter line wide; pappus alike and akenes 
glabrous; rays glabrous or nearly so. Another specimen which 
_ I refer to this I collected above Silver Lake in American Fork 
Cafion, Utah, July 30, 1880, at about 10,000 feet altitude, which 
is the same as the above, except that it is at least four years old 
and more loosely branched and leaves only aninch long. The 
inner scales are acute with rather wide lacerate margins, outer 
scales short, scales in at least three series; heads sessile. The 
glabrous akenes and habitat would indicate a distinct species. 
Townsendia Watsoni, Gray. If Dr. Gray has not confounded 
this with the true 7. flordfer then this is not a good species. In 
order to find out_I had two’ plants which I knew grew from the 
same seed sent to Harvard, one of them came back labeled 
‘© 7. florifer”? and the other. ‘‘ 7. Watsonz.” It is therefore 
evident that the varying pappus was considered a specific char- 
acter by Dr. Gray and was used to separate the species, but it is 
of no value whatever in this group and is hardly of any value in 
the genus at large. From quite an amount of material from the 
northwest it seems likely that there may be some good characters 
left on which to separate the species, the chief one being that the 
true 7: florifer is biennial or more, while our plant of Utah and 
most of Nevada is a winter annual, almost white with a rough 
strigose pubescence which is short or long, the scales are in about 
two ranks; rays very pubescent on the outside with flattened 
hairs with yellow gland-like tips. Our plants are never fleshy 
‘and the leaves are not thick. It is a more graceful plant, and 
grows in the valleys in very dry places and is an early bloomer, 
it soon dries up and blows away. It is the plant referred to by 
me in “Contributions No. 3’’ as being a diurnal with flowers 
_ opening between nine and ten o'clock A. M., and closing between 
five and six o'clock Pp. M. It is the only 7ownsendia of our 
