ARROW-WEED (Pluchea sericea (Nutt.) Coville). Flower 

 heads of disk florets only, purple, or whitish tinged with red or 

 purple, in terminal clusters. These florets are of two kinds, 

 those of the margin pistillate with slender style branches long 

 exserted and thread-like corollas, the central florets often ster- 

 ile and with tubular 5-cleft corollas. Leaves alternate, nar- 

 row and tapering to both ends, about an inch long, silvery- 

 silky. An erect, grayish, willow-like shrub, 6 to 15 feet high, 

 very leafy, common along streams and in damp ground, form- 

 ing thickets, .Southern California, east through the deserts 

 to the Rio Grande; flowering April to July. 



A thicket of Arrow-weed is a welcome feature in the land- 

 scape for campers. The perfectly straight, slender stems, 

 abundantly clothed with silky leaves, are readily gathered in 

 quantity sufficient for spreading on the ground as a foundation 

 upon which to lay one's blankets, making a capital substitute 

 for a mattress. Indians found the plant serviceable for 

 thatching their huts, and also made arrow shafts of the stems, 

 whence, doubtless, the common name. The Mexican name 

 for the plant is Cachanilla. In the older botanical reports it 

 was called Tessaria borealis. 



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