RABBIT BRUSH (Chrysothdmnus nausebsus (Pursh) Britt.). 

 Flower heads each of 5 yellow disk florets, narrow and about 

 ^ inch high (no rays), and disposed in numerous, flattish- 

 topped, compound clusters. Leaves linear (to almost thread- 

 like in some forms), grayish with loose white wool in the typical 

 form, but this sometimes entirely absent or disappearing in 

 age. A rather rank-smelling, bushy shrub 3 to 10 feet high, 

 the woolly branchlets grayish white, or in some forms becom- 

 ing smooth and yellowish green in age; abounding in sandy or 

 sterile ground from Southern California along the desert bor- 

 ders and in arid regions northward to British Columbia and 

 eastward to Wyoming and New Mexico; blooming in summer 

 and autumn. 



The Rabbit Brush is as typical a plant of the arid regions of 

 the Far West as Sage Brush, in company with which it fre- 

 quently grows. The species is very variable and its different 

 forms have given botanists no end of trouble to systematize. 

 The name Chrysothamnus means "golden-bush," and very 

 accurately describes the plant when covered with its abound- 

 ing golden-yellow flowers, which though individually small are 

 showy in the mass. Immense areas are sometimes covered 

 by it. 



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