CHICORIACEOUS COMPOSITE. 47 



tlian in tlie preceding species, but variable in length : pass- 

 ing into an awn twice or tliriceas long. 



Common in the middle coast section of the State: the 

 awn very long in proportion to the palea. 



M. ELEGANS, Greene. — A span or more high, slender: 

 head less than a half inch : akenes turbinate, little more than 

 a line long : paleee ovate-deltoid, a half line long, the slender 

 awn about 2 lines. — Gray, 1. c. 



From the mesas back of San Diego to the plains east of 

 Mt. Diablo. Seldom collected, but perhaps not very rare. 



M. APHANTOCARPHA, Gray, 1. c. — Twelve to eighteen inches 

 high, and rather stout : leaves laciniate-toothed or nearly en- 

 tire, seldom deeply pinnatifid: heads a half inch high, many- 

 flowered, and subglobose: akenes oblong-clavate, hardly 

 2 lines long: palete minute and very broad or nearly obso- 

 lete, the bristles very slender and fragile, about 3 lines 

 long. 



Common in the region of San Francisco Bay, and ex- 

 tremely variable as to the pappus, which consists often of 

 bristles with thickened, rather than paleaceous base. It is 

 possible that we have here two or three species, but more 

 probably they are mere forms, passing imperce^^tibly into 

 each other. The leaves are less dissected in this than in 

 any of the others. 



M. PYGM.EA, Don. — About a span high: akenes 1 — 2 lines 

 long, slenderly turbinate: paleee 10, lanceolate, a line or 

 more long, slightly notched at the apex, and tipped with a 

 somewhat barbellate awn of about 2 lines. — Phil. Mag. xi. 

 388; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. ix. 209. 



Native of Chili. The North American species which 

 looks most like this type of the genus is M. Bigelovii. The 

 principal difference between them is in the number of the 

 paleoe and the slight notch at the apex of those of M. ijyg- 

 moea, Avhich species in that respect only betrays an affinity 

 with the following genus. 



