180 KEY AND FLORA 



XXVI. BLENNOSPER'MA 



Annuals, low, slender, much branched, smooth. Leaves 

 pinnately parted into many, narrow, linear divisions. Heads 

 small, terminating the branchlets. Flowers many, light 

 yellow. .Involucre with bracts in a single series, generally 

 tipped with dark red. Receptacle flat. Ray flowers pistillate, 

 without pappus ; disk flowers sterile, except the row next to the 

 ray flowers. Akenes covered with white dots which become jelly- 

 like when wet. 



B. Califor'nicum T. & G. This is the only species. It grows in 

 wet places in early spring and often covers the ground for miles 

 along highways. 



XXVII. ERIOPHYI/LUM 



Shrubs or herbs with entire or divided leaves clothed with 

 cottony wool, especially on the under surface. Flowers yellow. 

 Bracts of the involucre lance-shaped, united at base. Pappus 

 of membranaceous scales. 



a. E. staechadifolium Lag. LIZARD-LEAF. Shrubby, with many 

 stems rising from a woody base, terminated by loose cymes of rather 

 small heads. Leaves cut into linear, pinnate divisions somewhat 

 resembling a lizard in outline, green above, white below. Common 

 in the Coast Mountains. 



b. E. confertiflo'rum Gray. Similar to the above, but smaller, 

 with leaves reduced and scattered, white on both sides. Heads almost 

 destitute of rays in a dense corymb. Extending to the Sierras, as well 

 as in the Coast Mountains. 



c. E. caespito'sum Dougl. Perennial herbs, with many stems 

 from the root. Heads nearly an inch in diameter, with conspicuous 

 rays, solitary or few, on long peduncles. This is extremely variable 

 and widely distributed. 



XXVIH. MONOLOTIA 



Annual herbs with woolly pubescence and sessile leaves 

 alternate above, sometimes opposite below. Heads large, 

 terminating the stems ; scales of the involucre united into a 

 toothed cup. Receptacle conical, papillose. Pappus none. 

 Flowers yellow, with conspicuous rays. 



