WyetUa. COMPOSITE. 267 



1 00. W YETHI A, Nutt. {Nathaniel J. Wyeth, who collected the species 

 on which the genus was founded, and with whom Nuttall subsequently crossed 

 the continent.) — Stout and mostly low perennials (W. North-American) ; with 

 more or less balsamic or resiniferous juice, ample and undivided pinnately veined 

 alternate leaves (commonly entire), and large heads of mostly yellow flowers. 

 (Thick i-oots and seeds were food of the Indians.) — Jour. Acad. Philad. vii. 38, 

 & Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii. 351 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. G54. Alargonia, 

 DC. Prodr. v. 537. 



* Rays from " pale yellow " or dull straw-color to white. — The original Wijethia, Nutt. 



W. helianthoides, Nutt. A span to a foot and a half high, simple and with a sin^-le 

 large head, or rarely 3 or 4, hirsute: leaves from oval to broadly lanceolate, denticulate or 

 entire, 4 to 8 inches long, mostly narrowed at base into a sliort margined petiole ; heads au 

 inch high : bracts of the involucre narrowly lanceolate, numerous : rays nearly 2 inches long : 

 akeues 4 lines long, either prismatic-quadrangular or fiattish, 12-nerved : pappus shorter 

 than tlie w^idth of the akene, sometimes minute, chaffy-coroniform and cleft into few or 

 several teeth. — Jour. Acad. Philad. 1. c. t. 5 ; Gray, 1. c — Northern Rocky Mountains, iu 

 moist valleys, S. W. Montana to E. Oregon, Wyeth, Nevius, Cusick, Watson, Scribner. 



* * Rays bright yellow. — Alarqonia, DC. (Dedicated to the memory of Hernando de Alar^on, 

 a noble Spanish navigator, who, in 1540, first visited and carefully surveyed the coast of Cali- 

 fornia.) 



H— Involucre of the very large and broad heads foliaceous; the spreading outer bracts ovate or 

 oblong, commonly 2 inches or more iu length, much surpassing the disk (which is of about equal 

 breadth) and often exceeding the rays: akenes very stout and thick, lialf-inch long, with com- 

 paratively obtuse angles, crowned with a large chaffy-coriaceous calyciform pappus, which is 

 cleft into unequal teeth or lobes: cauline leaves short-petioled. 



W". helenioides, Nutt. 1. c. Very stout, 2 or 3 feet high, floccosely tomentose, glalirate 



in age : leaves oblong and ovate, mostly entire, radical a foot or two and upper cauline 



C to 8 inches long: akenes pubescent towaxd the summit. — Gray, PI. Feudl. 82, Proc. Am. 



Acad. I.e., & Bot. Calif, i. 349. AIar(;onia helenioides, DC. 1. c. — Hillsides around and 



near San Francisco Bay, California ; first coll. by Douglas. 

 "W. glabra, Gray. A foot or two high, glabrous or nearly so, balsamic-viscid : leaves of 



the preceding in size and shape, or narrower, sometimes serrate: akenes glabrous. — Proc. 



Am. Acad. vi. 543, viii. 654, & Bot. Calif. 1. c. — W. California, from Marin Co. southward, 



Andrews, Brewer, &c. 



-(— H— Involucre of the smaller heads (about inch or less high) narrower and fewer-flowered, 

 usually campanulate ; the outer bracts even when foliaceous seldom surpassing the disk: akenes 

 less thick, 3 to 5 lines long. 



++ Glabrous and smooth throughout, usually balsamic-viscid: leaves thickish, lanceolate to ob- 

 long, upper sessile, lower tai)ering into margined petioles: outer bracts of the narrowish invo- 

 lucre disposed to be foliaceous. 



"W. amplexicaulis, Nutt. A foot or two high, robust : leaves mostly lanceolate-oblong, 

 entire or denticulate; radical often a foot or more long; upper cauline (a span or so long) 

 partly clasping by a rounded or somewhat narrowed base : heads solitary or several, short- 

 peduncled : involucral bracts broadly lanceolate, acute or obtuse, one or two outer ones 

 occasionally foliaceous and larger : rays inch and a half long : akenes with a conspicuous 

 crown cleft into acute teeth, and sometimes a small awn. — Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. I.e.; 

 Torr. & Gray, I.e. Espeletia amplexicaulis, Nutt. Jour. Acad. Phua'' .vii. 38. Silphium? 

 Im-e, Hook. Lond. Jour. Bot. vi. 244. — Moist valleys and plains. Rocky Mountains from 

 Colorado to Montana, west to Nevada and Brit. Columbia. Pe-ik of the Indians. 



"W. longicaulis, Gray. Nearly resembles preceding, taller, rather slender: leaves lanceo- 

 late, even uppermost with tapering base and not clasping: heads solitary or paniculate, on 

 long and slender peduncles : outer series of involucral bracts oblong or somewhat spatulate, 

 foliaceous, mostly surpassing the inner and the disk : rays only inch long : akenes with a 

 short erosely denticulate crown. — Proc. Am. Acad. xix. 4. — Prairies of E. Humboldt Co., 

 California, Rattan. 



