CHICORIACEOUS COMPOSIT.E. 45 



membranous margins; outer very short, calyculate. Re- 

 ceptacle flat, slightly alveolate. Akenes terete, 8 — 10-costate, 

 with a broad basal callosity, which is hollowed at the inser- 

 tion and produced upward into a sharp, denticulate-scabrous, 

 collar-like rim. Palese of the pappus 4-10 (usually 5), 

 mostly short, tapering into a long or short scabrous awn, in 

 one species nearly obsolete, the awn thicker but hardly flat- 

 tened at base. Acaulescent, glabrous annuals, with entire 

 or laciniately lobed on pinnatified leaves, and nodding heads 

 on slender scapes, which are somewhat decumbent at base 

 and not thickened above. Outer row of akenes commonly 

 silky-villous; the others usually scabrous on the ribs. Palea3 

 of the pappus often villous exteriorily . Genus of very limited 

 range east and west; not found east of the western base of 

 the Sierra Nevada, but occurring near the coast, from the 

 peninsula of Lower California to Oregon. — Microsersis, Don. 

 Phil. Mag. xi. 388; Benth. & Hook, ii, 506, magna pro 

 parte : Microseris § § Eamicroseris (excl. M. Forsteri) & Eu- 

 calaiSj Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 208; § Eucalcds, Bot. Cal. 

 i. 425, and § Calais (excl. sp.), Syn. Fl. ii. 418. Calais § 

 Eucalais, DC. Prod. vii. 85; Calais ^ ^ Eacalais and Apliaa- 

 ocalais, Gray, Pac. B. Rep. iv. 112. 



^FaleceS, hoat-sha.jyed i. e., a, little incurved and the margins 



involute. 



M. PLATYCARPHA, Gray. — A span or more in height; head 

 a half inch or less in length; main bracts of involucre about 

 8, oblong; akenes turbinate, 2 lines long; palene ovate, 2 

 lines long, tapering abruptly into a very short awn. Syn. 

 Fl. ii, 420. 



San Diego County, and on the northern part of the pen- 

 insula below. 



M. DouGLASii, Gray, 1. c. — A span to two feet high; head 

 about f inch long; bracts linear-oblong; akenes oblong-tur- 

 binate, contracted under the summit, 3 lines long; palese 



