2 6o Contributions to Western Botany. [zoe 



glabrous; pods one-half inch long, delicate. The peduncles are 

 almost glabrous, and the stem leaves have the petiole reduced in 

 my specimen to a sheath. 



Damp alkaline soil under shaded clifis in S. W. Colorado 

 Jiine to July. Found first by Mr. Alfred Wetherill then by Miss 

 Eastwood. 



NOTES ON TOWNSENDIA. 



This genus has always been a trying one to me because 

 the descriptions have not fitted the plants as they grow. 

 It now becomes evident that the trouble has arisen from 

 the undue emphasis which Dr. Gray gave to the pappus, this 

 being of almost no value. The glochidiate hairs seem to hold 

 but there is one species in which there seems to be a transition 

 in that respect. Although several species are said to be annual 

 I have never j-et seen a specimen that I would swear was an 

 annual; most of these seem to germinate in the fall and put out 

 a few leaves, w^hile those said to be winter annuals are doubtless 

 biennials; most of those said to be biennials are at least three 

 years old, while few of them endure over four years, except 

 perhaps T. Fendleri. All are early bloomers, for the altitude in 

 which they grow, except T. Fendleri and even that may begin to 

 bloom early but continues till frost. ' 



Taking the order of Graj', T. eximia and T.grandt/toj-a, Nutt. 

 have glabrous rays. An interesting form from Labron, Colo., 

 August 30, 1873, by Greene, has heads smaller than those of T. 

 eximia and is diffusely and intricately branched, rigid, only 

 minutely pubescent, with the scales and habit of T. eximia and 

 the pappus of T. grandiflora. This is in the Herbarium of the 

 California Academy. It may be a hj'brid. 



T. Parryi, Eaton. There are some points omitted from the. 

 description of the type by Gray. The leaves are acute, one-half 

 to one and one-half inches long of which the blade is one-half 

 and the petiole is slender; heads ebracteate; peduncle thickened 

 above; scales ovate to lanceolate, soft and thin, scarious except 

 midrib, acute, closely imbricated with no evident ranks but the 

 outer successively shorter, not acuminate; heads six lines high; 

 rays one inch long. This has widely'lacerate scales, and is evi- 

 dently a short lived perennial. From the type in the Herbarium 



