SUPPLEMENT 



Alters aie found all over the state, but neither they nor their near 

 relative, the golden rod, are so common a feature of the summer and 

 autumn flora as in the Atlantic States. They belong to three genera 

 difficult to distinguish, Corethrogyne, Aster and Erigeron. They 

 have both ray and disc flowers and a capillary pappus; the disc flow- 

 ers are commonly yellow, the ray flowers are usually blue, violet or 

 lavender, but they may be white or rose colored. In the southern 

 valleys the common summer and autumn species are scattered plants, 

 rather stiff in habit, but farther north on the beaches, and in moist 

 places in the higher mountains throughout the state, there are some 

 graceful and exceedingly beautiful Asters. Erigeron Philadelphicus, 

 Ivinn., is a common weed in wet places, and has in spring time rather 

 large and very pretty flower heads with white fringe-like rays. E. 

 Canadensis, L,inn., is another common weed ; it flourishes late in 

 autumn, and in land that has been cultivated, it is sometimes six feet 

 high; its flowers are small and greenish white, but because of its 

 numerous, slender, green leaves and branches and its fluffy fruits, it 

 is by no means an unattractive plant. 



The California golden rod. Solidago Calif ornica, Nutt., is found 

 throughout the state and is especially abundant in the mountains; its 

 heads are small, but they are massed in fairly large clusters, not, 

 however, at all comparable with the great plume-like clusters of some 

 Eastern species. S. octidentalis, Nutt., grows along streams and has 

 small clusters. Aplopappus and Bigelovia, as noted in Chapter III, are 

 genera .specially adapted to the arid interior regions; nearly all our 

 species are low and shrubby, with narrow, rigid and often resinous 

 leaves; the heads of yellow flowers are usually slender with rays 

 wanting or not conspicuous. Our one genus that contains shrubs, the 

 Baccharis, is also one of the Aster tribe. The tallest species, B. vim- 

 inea y DC., called the flowering or mock-willow, grows along streams 

 and is sometimes twenty feet high; other species grow along streams 

 or even on coast hills, and usually have numerous red nutgalls on the 

 leaves. They bloom in late summer and autumn; the heads on some 

 plants are staminate, on others pistillate; none have ray flowers; the 

 pappus is very copious and silky. 



The Gnaphaliums, or everlasting flowers, belong to another tribe. 

 Although some species bloom in spring time, the plants are so well 

 adapted to hard conditions, either aridity or cold, that they are in- 

 cluded in Chapter III. The Eidelweiss of the Alps is a Gnaphalium. 

 The individual flowers are so very slender that it is not easy to dis- 

 tinguish their parts; there are no ray flowers, and only a few central 

 flowers in each head are perfect, the outer ones being pistillate only. 



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