CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 195 



and somewhat clasping: involucre hemispherical, less than 

 a half inch high, scales narrower and less scarious than in 

 M. Goulteri: corolla yellow: akenes obtusely 5-angled and 

 15-ribbed: one or two of the pappus-bristles ' persistent; 

 those of the receptacle sparse and short. 



Coronados Island, near San Diego, Maj 7 16, 1885. Inter- 

 esting as a second species of a peculiar section of the genus, 

 and singular in being restricted to a small island only seven 

 miles distant from the main land, a strange limitation of an 

 annual composite; yet perhaps not so remarkable when we 

 consider that the pappus, all but one or two bristles, is de- 

 ciduous. 



Malacothrix altissima. 



Glabrous; stout and strict, 3 — 6 feet high from an annual 

 root : stem leafy and simple up to the broad terminal, leaf- 

 less, corymbose panicle: leaves of broadly lanceolate out- 

 line, 2 — 3 inches long, rather loosely laciniate-cleft or 

 coarsely toothed : involucre campanulate, a half inch high; 

 calyculate bracts numerous, subulate: summit of immature 

 akenes with a broad white border : none of the pappus-bris- 

 tles persistent. 



Mountains of Kern County, near Tehachapi Station, July, 

 1884, Mrs. Curran. The largest species of the genus, and 

 of the same group as the two following which are suffrutes- 

 cent, and very clearly distinct from each other, as Mr. Nutt- 

 all, the discoverer of them, could not fail to see at a glance, 

 namely: 



M. saxatilis, Torr. & Gray, 



Which is a strictly maritime species; leaves not only entire, 

 but of that succulent texture which is so common in sea-side 

 plants, and akenes one half as long only, as in the following. 



M. tenuifolia, Torr. & Gray. 



Foliage finely laciniate-parted, and not at all fleshy. 

 Confined to the mountain districts back from the sea. M. 

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