66 COMPOSITE. (ASTER FAMILY.) 



Leaves in fives and sixes; fruit hairy G. triflomm. 4 



Leaves 4, 5 or 6 in a whorl; flowers white G. trifidum. 5 



Leaves in fours, 3-nerved, lanceolate G. boreale. 9 



1. G. Californicum, Hook and Arn. Low, branching; sterile flowers terminal, in 

 threes, corolla yellowish; fertile ones solitary, recurved in fruit; fruit purple. 



2. G. Nuttallii, Gr. Leaves 2 to 5 lines long, thickish, varying from ovate-oblong 

 to linear-lanceolate, margins ciliate; flowers solitary. 



3. G. Aparine, L. The margins midrib, and angles of the branches armed with 

 Bpinulose bristles; peduncles 1-2-flowered; fruit large, white. (?) 



4. G. triflorum, Michx. Bright green, nearly smooth; leaves oblong-lanceolate, 

 acute at both ends, the margins and midrib often beset with hooked bristles; peduncles 

 once or twice 3-forked; with hooked bristles. 



5. G. trifidum, L. Nearly smooth, except the roughened angles of the slender 

 stems; leaves 3 to 9 lines long; lobes of the white corolla often only three; fruit smooth, 



6. G. boreale, L. Cymes many flowered, in a thyrsiform panicle. 



ORDER 30. VALERIANACEJE. 



Herbs with opposite leaves, no stipules; the distinct stamens fewer than the lobes ol 

 the corolla, and borne on its tube; the inferior ovary with two empty cells, and one con- 

 taining a solitary ovule, ripening into a kind of ak^ne. 



1. PLECTRITIS, (Lindl.) DC. 



Limb of the calyx obsolete. Tube of the corolla very gibbous, spurred at the base; 

 the short limb bilabiate; upper lip 2-cleft, lower 3-cleft. Fruit winged by the open 

 sterile cells. Flowers white, small. 



1. P. congesta, DC. Corolla about 3 lines long; its spur much shorter than the 

 tube. 



2. P. macrocera, Torr. & Gr. Corolla smaller; its thick spur about the length of 

 the body. 



ORDER 31. COMPOSIT-ffi. 



Flowers, usually many in a dense head, sessile, on a common receptacle, surrounded 

 by a calyx-like involucre; the calyx reduced to hairs or scales, or obsolete; the corolla 

 tubular, equally lobed, ligulate or bilabiate, the 5 stamens united by their anthers into a 

 tube inclosing the 2-parted style; the ovary inferior forming in fruit an akene which is 

 usually crowned with the persistent calyx (pappus). 



This the largest of all the orders, is represented in California by over 500 species, 140 



