PTILORIA COMPOSITE 389 



TRAGOPOGON 



ones, not rarely with two or three of intermediate length. Recep- 

 tacle quite naked. Achenes 5-angled or ribbed, sometimes with 

 intermediate ribs. Pappus a series of plumose bristles or rarely 

 chaffy awns, not rarely naked toward the base. 



P tenuifolia Raf. Atl. Journ. 145, 1832. Stephanomeria minoi Null. 

 Perennial, 1-2 feet high, sterna slender, branches ascending hearing nu- 

 merous small heads of pink flowers in long loose racemes : radical leaves 

 runcinate pinnatifid, those of the stem linear or filiform, entire, or some- 

 times runcinate-dentate, the uppermost reduced to small scales : involacres 

 narrow, usually 5-flowered with about the same number of linear-lanceo- 

 late scarious-margined bracts: pappus white, very plumose to the base. 

 Plains and mountains from British Columbia to California, Texas and Ne- 

 braska, 



P yirgata Greene Pitt, ii, 130. Stephanomeria virgata Benth. 

 Stems rigid, 1-4 feet high Irom an annual root: lower lea ve< oblong or 

 spatulate, often sinuate or pinnatifid ; upper leaves linear, small and en- 

 tire : heads 3-4 lines long, mostly subsessile or short-peduncled, spicately 

 o r thyrsoidly disposed along the naked upper part of the virgate stem or 

 smaller branches, sometimes more loosely paniculate on open branchlets : 

 involucre 4-8 flowered: achenes subclavate or oblong, rugose-tuberculate 

 between the narrow ribs: pappus moderately plumose to the base, white, 

 not paleaceous-dilated. Oregon and California. 



P. pauiculata Greene 1. c. 132. Stephanomeria paniculata Nult. 

 Stems erect from an annual root: a foot or two high, bearing numerous 

 narrow 3-5 flowered heads in an elongated, narrow or more open panicle, 

 or else more strictly disposed or virgate branches : leaves linear or the 

 lower lanceolate : achenes subclavate or oblong, rugose tuberculate or ob- 

 long, rugose-tuberculate between the narrow ribs: pappus grayish or fus- 

 cous, its bristles short-plumose nearly or quite to the more or less paleaceous 

 or squamelliferous base. Plains of Eastern Oregon and Idaho. 



P. exigua Greene 1. c Stephanomeria exigua Nutt, Stems panicu- 

 lately and often divergently branched with slender branches and branch- 

 lets, 1-2 feet high: radical and lower cauline leaves pinnatifid or bipinna- 

 tifid, those of the branches mainly reduced to short scales: heads scattered: 

 involucre 4-5 lines high, usually 5-flowered : achenes thick-ribbed and tuber- 

 culate-rugose when mature: bristles of the pappus 8-18, their more or less 

 dilated and paleaceous or thickened base commonly a little connate into 4 

 or 5 phalanges and often 1-2-setose on each side. Idaho to eastern Cali- 

 fornia and Texas. 



96 TRAGOPOGON L Gen. n. 905. 



Biennial or perennial somewhat succulent herbs with alternate, 

 sessile and clasping leaves, and long-peel uncled large heads of yel- 

 low or purple nowers opening in the early morning, usually closed 

 by noon. Involucre cylindric or narrowly campanulate, its 

 bracts in one series, nearly equal, united at base. Rays truncate 

 and 5-toothed at the apex. Anthers sagittate at base. Style- 

 branches slender. Achenes linear, terete or 5-angled 510 

 ribbed, terminated by slender beaks, or the outermost beakless. 

 Pappus-bristles in one series, plumose, connate at the base, the 

 plume-branches interwebbed. 



T. POBRIFOLIUS L. Sp. 780. (OYSTER PLANT. SALSIFY.) Stems erect, 2-7 

 feet high from a long fleshv tap-root: leaves entire, linear-lanceolate, long- 



