MALACOTHREX (Malacbthrix californica, DC.). Flower 

 heads pale yellow, showy, about 2 inches across, composed en- 

 tirely of strap-shaped ray flowers (like the dandelion); solitary 

 and "terminating usually naked stalks 6 inches to a foot high, 

 nodding in the bud. Leaves tufted at the base of the flower 

 stalk, cut into narrow linear divisions, w r hich when young are 

 clothed with loose, long, soft hairs. An herbaceous annual, 

 blooming from March till May, in sandy soil of the California 

 Coast region from San Diego to San Francisco, and on plains 

 of the interior valleys. 



This is a charming flower, the large heads resembling the 

 bloom of the Hawkweed, and of a delicate tone of yellow fused 

 with cream, and often with a purplish tone at the centre. In 

 the California desert region and eastward to Nevada and 

 Arizona, and northward to Oregon, there is a variety glabrata 

 quite common, which is devoid of hairiness, and usually with 

 flower heads borne laterally on the flowering stem as well as at 

 the top. Some botanists consider this a separate species, M. 

 glabrata, Gray. Malacothrix means "soft hair," an allusion 

 to the woolliness of the young plant. 



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