Hall. Compositae of Southern California. 103 



the head, 4 or 5 sterile hermaphrodite flowers, each of these com- 

 monly subtended by a plane or slightly concave bract. Pistillate 

 flowers marginal, each completely enfolded by the medial or (in 

 one species) the basal portion of its very woolly subtending 

 bract. Pappus none in the fertile flowers, sometimes of a few 

 caducous bristles in the sterile ones. 



Bracts of the sterile flowers inconspicuous, merely acute: fertile flowers 



numerous. 

 Pistillate flowers enclosed in the central portion of wholly hyaline bracts, 



the margins of which are wing-like 1. S. gnaphalioides. 



Pistillate flowers enfolded by the entire basal portion of the bracts, the 



margins not wing-like 2. S. micropoides. 



Bracts of the sterile flowers tapering into conspicuous rigid hooked cusps: 

 fertile flowers 5 to 9 3. S. filaginea. 



1. S. gnaphalioides Nutt., Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. ser. 2, vii. 

 338 (1841). 



Diffusely branched from the base, commonly 5 to 15 cm. 

 long: leaves broadly linear or spatulate-linear ; the upper some- 

 what broader ones, obtuse and 5 to 12 mm. long : pistillate fertile 

 flowers numerous; their bracts (barely 3 mm. long) ovate, nearly 

 plane on the outer surface, a central portion at the base pro- 

 duced on the inner side into a sac enclosing the achene, this 

 portion firm, the remainder hyaline : sterile flowers little shorter 

 than their bracts, with rudimentary ovary and a pappus of few 

 caducous bristles. 



On the plains and in dry sandy creek-beds: from San Diego 

 and Santa Catalina Island 20 to middle California and the borders 

 of the deserts. 



2. S. micropoides Gray, PL Wright, ii. 84 (1853). 



Plant low, beginning to blossom when only a few cm. high: 

 cauline leaves linear, those involucrate to 'the heads lanceolate- 

 linear, rather acute, .5 to 1 cm. long: pistillate fertile flowers 

 numerous, their very woolly bracts oblong, without hyaline mar- 

 gins or wings, but ending above in a small oblong-ovate hyaline 

 tip, the whole body enwrapping the achene : sterile flowers naked 

 or barely subtended by oblong glabrous paleae, with abortive 

 ovaries and a pappus of 3 or 4 slender and smooth caducous 

 bristles. 



Ace. to Lyon, Bot. Gaz. xi. 333 (1886). 



