Buckwheat Family 115 



oblong, 4-12 mm. long, tomentose beneath ; lower bracts similar or 

 linrar-oblanceolate ; involucres tomentose, in diffuse cymes, tin- 

 tube 4 mm. long with strongly divergent teeth half as long or 

 more, the alternate ones much smaller; flowers rose-colored, 5 

 mm. long, sessile, villous ; segments linear-oblong, entire, acutish, 

 the alternate ones only half as long; stamens inserted at the 

 base. 



Common in the chaparral belt of all our mountains. 



5. ACANTHOCYPHUS Small. 



Slender nearly glabrous acaulescent annual herbs, 

 with erect wiry forking scapes. Leaves basal firm dentic- 

 ulate with spinulose teeth, dilated at the base. Bracts 

 scale-like, ternate, united at the bases, inclined to one 

 side of the axes. Involucres turbinate, truncate, on 

 wire-like peduncles, with 18-20 hard ribs, which are 

 prolonged into as many rigid acicular awns, these sur- 

 passing the tube in length. Flowers 5-14, of 2 kinds : 

 staminate, included ; pistillate, exserted. Pedicels sub- 

 tended by linear or linear-spatulate bractlets. Perianth 

 glabrous, segments 6. Stamens 9, inserted at the base 

 of the perianth. 



1. A. Parisbii (Parry) Small. Slender, 2-5 dm. high; stems 

 with short-stalked glands at the base and for a short distance 

 above the forks, otherwise glabrous and more or less glaucous ; 

 leaves 3-4 cm. long, finely spinulose-denticulate, tube of invo- 

 lucre 2 mm. long, much surpassed by its slender whitish 

 bristles. (Oxytheca Parishii Parry.) 



Common in the pine belt of the San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains. 



6. OXYTHECA Xutt. 



Slender dichotomously branched annuals, stipitate- 

 glandular at the nodes. Leaves in a rosette at base. 

 Bracts foliaceous and more or less united, usually ter- 

 nate. Involucres few-flowered, more or less distinctly 

 pedicellate, campanulate or turbinate, 3-5-cleft, the 



