CARDUUS COMPOSITE 383 



clavellate tips. Common on prairies Brit. Columbia to California. 



-- -*- None of the involucral bracts with fimbriate or scarious-dila- 

 ted tips, but tapering into an almost innocuous weak and short prickle 

 or soft point : leaves green both sides, mostly membranaceous, not 

 decurrent on the stem. 



C. edulis Greene Proc. Philad. Acad. 1892, 368. Stems robust and 

 somewhat succulent, 3-10 feet high, pubescent, leafy to the top: leaves ob- 

 long or narrower, from slightly to deeply sinuate-pinnatifid, weakly prick - 

 ly-ciliate: heads an inch h gh, scattered, or few m a cluster, usually bracte- 

 ose at base : involucre conspicuously arachnoid-woolly when young, partly 

 glabrate in age : corollas purple or whitish the lobes much shorter than the 

 the throat, filiform in the dried state and capitellate-callous at the apex. 

 Edge o' timbered lands, Alaska to California west of the Cascade Mountains. 



. Hallii. Cnicus Hallii Gray. Glabrate and green : stems slender, 2-3 

 feet high leafy .-leaves pinnatifid; the lobes and teeth rather strongly prick- 

 ly: heads solitary and pedunculate or 2-3 in a small terminal cluster, 

 more or less bracteose -leafy at base: involucre sparingly arachnoid when 

 young, soon glabrate, the attenuate tips of all but the outermost without 

 rigid spines : corollas rose-purple to white; the lobes linear, plane, obtuse. 

 Oregon to southern California and Utah. 



* * * * Bracts of the involucre moderately unequal, or the lower 

 not rarely about equalling the upper, most of them with more or less 

 herbaceous spinescent-tipped spreading upper portion and no glandu- 

 lar dorsal ridge. 



C. occidentalis Nutt. Trans. Am. Phil. Soc. vii, 418. Mostly stout, 

 2-12 feet high, very white with a thick coat of cottony wool : leave* from 

 sinuate-dentate to pinnatifld, not very prickly : involucral bracts some- 

 times narrow and herbaceous acerose from a little-dilated base, sometimes 

 with broader more coriaceous base, or the outer with lanceolate-subulate 

 tips : corollas bright red or crimson : style destitute of node. Dry hillsides, 

 southwestern Oregon to California. 



* * * * * Bracts of the involucre regularly and chiefly appressed- 

 imbricated in numerous ranks ; the outer successively shorter ; not 

 herbaceous-tipped or appendaged. 



*- Heads oblong or cylindraceou*, showy: not at all glandular on 

 the bark ; inner ones all erect and purplish-tinged. 



C. Andersoni Greene 1. c. Slender, rather lightly and loosely woolly : 

 leaves lightly prickly, sinuate-pinnatifid, rather sparse: heads naked-pe- 

 dunculate: involucral bracts comparatively loose and erect, all gradually 

 attenuate from a narrow base : outermost tipped with small weak prickles : 

 corollas bright pink-red, their slender lobes about equalling their throat: 

 style prolonged above the very obscure node. Dry hills, southwestern 

 Idaho to eastern California. 



- *- Heads broad, mostly large : involucre glabrous or earl v glab- 

 rate, the light arachnoid wool caducous, its bracts rather large, char- 

 taceous or coriaceous, not at all glandular on the back : anther-tips 

 narrow, very acute. 



C. Drum nion (Hi Coville Contr. Nat. Herb, iv, 142. Green and some- 

 what villous-pubescent, or when young lightly arachnoid-woolly: either 

 stemless and bearing sessile Leads in a cluster on the crown, or caulescent 

 and even 2-3 feet high, with solitary or several loosely disposed heads: 

 leaves from sinuate or almost entire to pinnately parted, moderately 

 pricklv : larger heads fully half-inch high : bracts of the involucre thin- 

 coriaceous or chartaceous, mostly acuminate, weak-prickly, pointed or 



