1907J Hall. Compositae of Southern California. 189 



^.Pappus of deciduous fimbriate paleae or none. 



Achenes flat, obovate or clavate: glandular-pubescent annual 



9. C. artemisiae folia. 



1. C. glabriuscula DC., Prodr. v. 659 (1836). 



Annual, 1.5 to 5 dm. high, leafy up to the inflorescence, com- 

 monly branching only above: herbage thinly floccose, soon gla- 

 brate : leaves once or twice pinnately parted into linear lobes or 

 the upper linear and entire : involucre 7 to 10 mm. high ; its bracts 

 broadly linear, with obtuse thickish tips: corollas pubescent 

 throughout or the tube nearly glabrous ; marginal corollas with 

 ampliate palmate limb surpassing the disk: pappus-paleae 4. 

 rarely 5 ; those of the disk-achenes as long as the corolla, acute ; 

 those of the marginal achenes either as long as the corolla and 

 acute or of varying lengths and the shorter ones obtuse. 



Including its various forms and varieties, this species has a 

 range extending from Lower California to the northern tier of 

 counties in Alta California. It is very common west of the 

 Sierra Nevada and San Bernardino Mts. and extends to the bor- 

 ders of the Desert Area. While apparently very easy to dis- 

 tinguish several well marked species when only a few specimens 

 are at hand, this separation is seen to be inadvisable when the 

 forms are studied in the field or when several hundred sheets 

 from as many localities are examined. Pappus characters are 

 here entirely unreliable and distinctions based on the size or shape 

 of the marginal corollas are of no value. Perhaps the best char- 

 acters are to be found in the involucre but here all intermediate 

 stages between broad flat bracts with thick obtuse tips and linear 

 deeply concave bracts with thin acute tips may be found, and 

 the two forms often occur, moreover, in a single head. 



KEY TO THE VARIETIES AND FORMS OF C. GLABRIUSCULA. 



Stem branching only above, or also at base: peduncles never scape-like. 

 Involucral bracts narrowly oblong; their tips thick, obtuse: marginal 



corollas mostly with palmate limb. 

 Pappus-paleae of inner achenes about as long as the corolla, acute: 



typical C. glabriuscula. 



Pappus-paleae all much shorter than the corolla, very obtuse and 



in two series; the outer minute var. heterocarpha. 



in one series; all very short var. heterocarpha f. curia. 



