Franseria. COMPOSITE. 251 



iug involucre armed with flat and thin lanceolate-subulate smootli and glabrous long and 

 straight spines, seemingly always 1 -flowered. Torr. & Gray, Fl. ii. 294. /'. Hookeriuna 

 ninntuna, Nutt. 1. c. Hemixanthidium, Delpino, 1. c. 60. Ambrosia ncaiilhicarpa, Hook. FL 

 i. 309. Plains and along streams, Saskatchewan to Washington Terr., California, Arizona, 

 and W. Texas. 



F. bipinnatiflda, NUTT. Procumbent, with stems 2 or 3 feet long from a perennial rout, 

 somewhat hirsute: leaves of ovate circumscription (an inch or two long), 2-3-pinnatrlv 

 parted into oblong-linear divisions and small oblong lobes, canescent with soft tomcntuni or 

 fine hirsute-sericeous pubescence : sterile spike or raceme dense, of rather large heads : 

 fruiting involucre ovate-fusiform, armed with rather short and thick but flatfish tubercnli-- 

 like spines, their acute tips sometimes incurving. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 507; Torr. & 

 Gray, 1. c. F. Lessinyii, Walp. Eel. Meyen. 268. Sands of the sea-coast, Washington Terr. 

 to S. California. 



P. Chamissonis, LESS. Leaves cuneate-obovate or oblong-ovate with a cuneate base, 

 3-5-nerved at base, obtusely serrate, the lower often laciuiate-iucised ; otherwise as the pre- 

 ceding, or the 2-flowered fruiting involucre rather thicker, the spines broader and more cana- 

 liculate. Torr. & Gray, 1. c. (with var. cuneifolia) ; Gray, Bot. Cal. i. 345. F. Chaiuisxmiis, 

 var. malvcefolia, Less, in Linn. vi. 507 ; DC. 1. c. F. cuneifolia, Nutt. 1. c. Sandy sea- 

 beaches, Brit. Columbia to California. 



F. discolor, NUTT. 1. c. A foot or less high, erect from perennial slender creeping root- 

 stocks : leaves canescently tomentose beneath, green and glabrate above, interruptedly 

 bipinnatifid, oblong in outline, comparatively large (the lowest often C inches long) ; the 

 lobes usually short and broad: sterile racemes commonly solitary: fruiting involucre ovoid, 

 2-flowered, cauescent, armed with rather short conical-subulate very acute and straight spines. 

 Torr. & Gray, 1. c. From station and char, probably A iitbrosia tomentosa,]$utt. Gen. ii. 

 186. Xanthidium discolor, Delpiuo, 1. c. Plains, &c., Nebraska to Wyoming, Colorado, and 

 New Mexico. 



F. tomentosa, GRAY. A foot high, rather stout, erect from an apparently perennial base 

 or rootstock, canescent with a dense sericeous tomentum : leaves very white beneath, cine- 

 reous above, piuuately 3-5-cleft or parted ; the terminal division large, oblong or broadly lan- 

 ceolate, serrate ; upper lateral similar but smaller ; lowest commonly very small and entire : 

 fruiting involucre 3 lines long, turgid-ovoid, 2-flowered, nearly glabrous ; the short spines 

 conical-subulate, very acute, and the very tip usually uncinate-incurved. PI. Fendl. 80, & 

 Pacif. R. Rep. iv. 102. Along streams or river-beds, Kansas and E. Colorado, Femlli.r, 

 Bigelair, Hall. 



* * * Shrubby, low (1 to 3 feet high), much branched, canescent with a fine and close white 

 tomentum, which is sometimes partly deciduous with age : sterile heads and fertile glomerules 

 not rarely intermixed in short racemes or clusters. 



4 Fruiting involucre mostly 2-flowered, smooth and glabrous, or barely puberulent; its spines 

 flattened and dilated at base, mostly straight-pointed. 



F. dumosa, GRAY. Divergently much branched, very cauescent : leaves small, 1-3-pinnately 

 parted into oblong or roundish (1 or 2 lines long) obtuse lobes: fertile involucre globular; 

 its spines long, tapering from a broadish flat base to a slender aristiform point. Frem. 2d 

 Rep. 316, Bot. Mex. Bound. 86, & Bot. Calif, i. 345. F. alticaulis, Torr. 1 1. Frem. 16.- 

 Arid region, from S. E. California to S. Utah and S. Arizona; first coll. by Coulter. 



F. deltoidea, TORH. Somewhat less woody, and less densely canesceut-tomentulose : 

 branches erect or spreading . leaves all undivided, from rhomboid-ovate or oblong to deltoid 

 or obscurely hastate, minutely and often doubly creuate-serrate, an inch or less long, rather 

 slender-petioled : fruiting involucre of the preceding, but the spines shorter and broader, 

 flatter, lanceolate-subulate. PI. Frem. 15; Bot. Mex. Bound. 87; Bot. Calif. Lc.--.Xim- 

 thidlum rhombophyllum, Delpino, 1. c. ? Arid regions of Arizona, and perhaps adjacent part 

 of California, Fremont, Parry, Schott, Palmer, &c. (Can hardly be F. chenopodiifolia, Benth., 

 of Lower California.) 



-1 -l Fruiting involucre only one-flowered, villous-lanate ! 



F. eriocentra, GRAY. Rigidly much branched, canescent with very minute tomentum : 

 leaves soou green and glabrate above, cuneate-oblong to lanceolate, from sinuatcly few-toothed 

 or lobecl to sparingly and irregularly laciniate-pinnatind, nearly sessile by attenuate base : 



