TOWNSENDIA SERICEA. 

 SILKY TOWNSEND FLOWER. 



NATURAL ORDER, COMPOSITE. 



ToWNSENDIA SERICEA, Hooker.— Stemless, from a simple or much branched caudex, one to 

 two inches high ; leaves spalulate-linear, silky canescent, acute, one-nerved, twelve to fifteen 

 lines long, erect, surrounding and partly concealing the heads (eight lines long), which are 

 sessile or on very short peduncles; scales of the involucre subulate-lanceolate, pubescent, 

 green in the centre, purplish towards the tip; margins scarious, lacerate-ciliate; rays long; 

 narrow, not spreading; pappus of the disk white, about as long as the corolla, pappus of the 

 ray of several unequal subulate bristles, much shorter than the achenium and one or two 

 long ones (sometime? nine or ten) similar to those of the disk flowers; achenium hairy, 

 hairs minutely capitate. (Porter's Synopsis of the Flora of Colorado. See also Torrey and 

 Gray's Flora of North America.') 



INCE the railroad progress of the few years past has 

 brought the Rocky Mountain country so near to us, and 

 many of the most intelHgent class of tourists make Colorado their 

 summer home, the desire to become acquainted with its natural 

 history and especially its botany is very great. Its flora is indeed 

 interesdng, not merely for its own sake, but also because its 

 Alpine vegetation affords us in some degree a knowledge of a 

 more northern flora. The present species for instance, an 

 inhabitant of the Rocky Mountains, is also an Arctic plant, and 

 was indeed first made known to us by the naturalists connected 

 with the first voyage to the Arctic seas, of the subsequendy 

 unfortunate Sir John Franklin ; and it is described in Dr. John 

 Richardson's account of the plants collected on that expedition, 

 published in 1823. Dr. Richardson thought it might be a species 

 of Aster, to which it is somewhat related, occupying a position 

 between Aster 2.\\A Erigeron. Its true distinction from Aster was 

 perceived by Sir William J. Hooker, who, in 1829, published the 



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