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



bracts and some loose subulate ones at base : ligules white, veined 

 externally with rose-purple, 15 mm. or more long: beak of the 

 achene very stout, tapering from the base : pappus clear white. 



Common among shrubs in the Lower Sonoran Zone of the 

 Desert Area: Antelope Valley and Coyote Cafion to Utah, the 

 Rio Grande, and Lower California. 



111. TRAGOPOGON L. 



Tall and erect perennial herbs with slender fleshy taproots, 

 alternate grass-like flaccid leaves clasping at the base, and large 

 heads of purple or yellow flowers, which are open only during 

 the morning. Involucral bracts in a single series, united at the 

 very base. Rays 5-toothed at the truncate apex. Receptacle 

 naked. Achenes muricate, 5 to 10-ribbed, long-beaked or the 

 outermost beakless. Pappus-bristles connate at the base, plumose 

 with interwebbed branches. 



1. T. porrifolius L., Sp. PL 789 (1753). SALSIFY. VEGE- 

 TABLE OYSTER. 



Stem simple and robust, often 1 m. or more high, bearing 

 at the summit a single head on a long fistulous peduncle : herbage 

 glaucous and perfectly glabrous except for a sparse woolly pu- 

 bescence on the lower part of the leaves: longest leaves 20 or 30 

 cm. long, 2 cm. wide at base, narrowly long-acuminate : involucre 

 contracted above the broad base, 4 or 5 cm. high; bracts all 

 lanceolate-acuminate and keeled, the outer ones foliaceous : 

 achenes 12 mm. and the beak 15 to 20 mm. long : pappus sordid, 

 of about 5 slender bristles, exceeding the corolla-tube, plumose 

 only toward the base. 



Waste places around Los Angeles, San Bernardino, etc., as 

 an escape from gardens. 



132. MALACOTHRIX DC. 



Chiefly herbaceous plants, a few woody at base, commonly 

 with a radical cluster of leaves, the stems either leafy or almost 

 naked. Heads small or medium-sized, solitary or panicled, never 

 sessile, commonly nodding in the bud. Flowers yellow, white, or 

 pinkish. Receptacle bristly or naked. Achenes short, truncate 



