COMPOSITAE OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



INTRODUCTION. 



The present paper is the result of a systematic study by the 

 author of. those Southern California plants belonging to the 

 family of Compositae, and its aim is to present in an intelligible 

 form our present knowledge of this group as it occurs within the 

 area indicated. Only two attempts to classify and describe the 

 Composite flora of Southern California have previously been 

 made, both by Dr. Asa Gray 1 2 , in connection with works of a 

 much larger scope. These works having been published some- 

 thing over twenty years ago, and much additional knowledge 

 having accumulated during the interval, it seemed advisable that 

 some such revision as the present one aims to be should be under- 

 taken. It is the result not only of over six years of study in the 

 herbarium and field on the part of the author, but also of much 

 careful work carried on by many resident and other botanists 

 who have generously placed their knowledge at his disposal, or 

 published accounts of their studies in the current botanical 

 journals. 



By "Southern California" is meant in general that portion 

 of the state lying to the south of Tehachapi Pass, or, more 

 specifically, the counties of Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, 

 San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, and Imperial. It 

 lies, roughly speaking, between 32 35' and 35 50' north latitude 

 (extending only to 35 5' in the western part), and between 37 

 and 43 40' longitude west from the meridian of Washington, 

 and includes the islands oft' the coast as well as the mainland 

 itself. It does not include Lower, or Baja, California, which is a 

 peninsula bordering Southern California on the south and belongs 

 to the Republic of Mexico. It has an area of 116,122 square 



1 Botany of California, i. 288-443, 613-619 (1876), and ii. 453-460 (1880). 



2 Synoptical Flora of North America, i. pt. 2, 48-444 (1884) and 445-455 

 (1886). 



