120 University of California Publications in Botany. [VOL. 3 



40. FRANSERIA Cav. 



Herbs or shrubs with chiefly alternate leaves. Habit, flowers, 

 and inflorescence as in Ambrosia. Pistillate heads 1 to 4-flow- 

 ered; the involucre closed, 1 to 4-celled and 1 to 4-beaked or 

 -pointed, armed with several rows of prickles, in fruit becoming 

 a bur. 



Stems herbaceous (leaves pinnatifid or pinnately parted except some in 



no. 4). 



Fruiting involucre (bur) 3 mm. -or less long, its spines mostly uncinate 

 1. F. tenuifolia. 



Fruiting involucre larger, its spines straight. 



Staminate heads 2 to 4 mm. broad: spines thin: inland species 



2. F. acanthicarpa. 



Staminate heads 5 to 7 mm. broad: spines thick: seashore species. 



Leaves twice or thrice pinnatifid or pinnately parted 



3. F. bipinnatifida. 



Leaves (at least the upper) merely serrate 4. F. Chamissonis. 



Stems woody (leaves parted only in no. 5 and sometimes in no. 7). 

 Petioles present: leaves not spinosely dentate. 



Leaves pinnately parted: bur with straight glabrous or minutely 



pubescent spines 5. F. dumosa. 



Leaves ovate, obtusely dentate or nearly entire: bur with uncinate 



spines woolly at base 6. F. chenopodii folia. 



Leaves various: bur with straight spines villous to the tip 



7. F. eriocentra. 



Petioles none: leaves spinosely dentate 8. F. ilicifolia. 



1. F. tenuifolia Gray, PL Fendl. 80 (1849). Gaertneria 

 tenuifolia Kuntze, Rev. Gen. i. 339 (1891). 



An erect herbaceous perennial, 3 to 15 dm. high: herbage 

 variously pubescent or glabrate, but usually hispid : leaves pin- 

 nately parted or dissected into narrowly oblong or linear lobes 

 and the primary rachis often with some interposed small lobes, 

 the terminal lobe elongated : Staminate racemes paniculately dis- 

 posed: fruiting involucres glomerate below, minutely glandular, 

 obovate with narrow base, about 2.5 mm. long, usually 2-flowered ; 

 spines stout, incurved and nearly always hooked, a cartilagin- 

 ously bordered pit above each. 



Common at Hollywood and Cahuenga Pass, near Los Angeles, 



