* • 



VI. 



PLAjMT^ wrightian^. 



lo: 



J 



and aspect of this plant are almost exactly as in M. sonchoides, with which I for- 

 merly confounded it. That species, however, as stated by Dr. Torrey {Appendix to 

 Stanshmy's Eeport, p. 392), has five stronger and persistent bristles to the pappus. 

 The achenium, moreover, is strongly angled with five thick and equidistant ribs, 

 which are much larger than the others (two in each interval), and alternating ^yith 

 the stronger setse of the pappus ; and its apex is very minutely denticulate, but not 

 produced into a cup or distinct border. In M. Fendleri, the ribs of the brownish 

 achenium are slender and all aUke, and its apex is continued into a decidcd cup, 

 with an even edge, within which the row of minute denticuli, like persistent bases 

 of the setse of the pappus, are concealed ; and only one (sometimes two 1) of the 



V 



of the pappus is stronger and per 



Californian plant of Coulter'is 

 sonchoides, is doubtless M 



collection, which I also inadvertently referred to M. sonchoides, is 

 obtusa, Benth. ; likewise gathered by Dr. Parry, at Monterey. In this the achcnia, in 

 PaiTy's specimens, are tapering to the base, somewhat angled, but evenly multistri- 

 ate, and with scarcely any apical border; the pappus is wholly deciduous in a ring; 

 and I find no stronger and naked bristles. — Dr. Torrey indicated to me an analo- 

 gous structure in the pappus of Sonchus, in which four or five of the inner bristles 

 of the pappus are much stronger than the soft and delicate exterior pappus. This, 

 I find, has been duly noticed by C. H. Schultz, in the Fhi/tograpJiia Ca)iariensis 

 of Mr. Webb. 



Prenanthes 1 EXiGUA (sp. uov.) i caulc 3 - 4-pollicari ramosissimo ; pedunculis 

 divaricatis ; foliis radicalibus caulinisque oblongis vel obovatis basi attenuatis spi- 

 nuloso-dentatis nunc sinuatis, ramealibus ad bracteas minimas reductis ; involucro 

 tetraphyllo quadrifloro; acheniis 5-sulcatis scabriusculis pappo rigido sublongiori- 

 bus. — Stony hills above El Paso ; April. (1425.) — Root simple, annual or bien- 

 nial. Leaves 6 to 10 lines Ipng, glabrous. Stem soon deliquescent into a difFuse 

 and corymbose compound panicle. Involucre 2 lines long, subtended by a minute 

 bract, like thbse of the peduncles and branchlets ; the scales oblong-lanceolate. 

 Ligules short; the color not known, probably flesh-colored. Achenia cylindrical, 

 scarcely narrowed at the base, truncate at the apex, the surface occupied by five 

 very broad and flat ribs, separated by narrow grooves, minutely scabrous. Pappus 

 bright white, of copious and very unequal bristles, which are unusually stifl" and 

 rigid, slightly thickened downwards, minutcly scabrous, the smallest less than half 

 the length of the longest, aud these rather shorter than the achenium, at length 

 separating in a ring. This plant seems to fall more readily into Prenanthes than 

 into any other genus known to me ; but it may not be a true congener of the 



European species. 



Lygodesmia APHi-LLA, var. Texana, Torr. ^ Gray, Fl 2. p. 485. Stony hills of 



thePecos; June. (1302.) 



MuLGEDiuM puLCHELLUM, Nutt. / Torr. Sf Grai/, Fl. 2. p. 498 ; Grai/, PL Fendl 

 p. 115. Banks of the Limpio and of the PJo Grande; also at the copper mines, 



New Mexico. (1303.) 



Pyiiriiopappus Caroliniaxus, DC. Prodr. Tp.U; Torr. S,' Gray, Fl 2. p. 495. 



Alonsr the Rio Grande, above El Paso; May. (142G.) 



