DOUGLAS'S GROUNDSEL (Senecio Dougldsii, DC.). Flower 

 heads yellow, with both ray florets and disk, the rays about a 

 dozen, light yellow, narrowish, and barely ^ inch long, in ter- 

 minal, loose-branching clusters. Leaves alternate, white- 

 woolly, divided into narrow almost thread-like lobes. A 

 somewhat shrubby perennial, forming a bush usually 3 or 4 

 feet high, but sometimes taller, common on open plains, in 

 gravelly washes, and on foothill slopes in Southern and Cen- 

 tral California, eastward through Arizona and Utah to Texas 

 and Nebraska; blooming from July to December. 



The genus Senecio is an exceedingly numerous one, com- 

 prising perhaps 1,000 species altogether, distributed almost 

 throughout the world. Of these there are more than 40 

 species indigenous to the Pacific Slope. They are of varied as- 

 pect, some being entirely devoid of rays. In most species 

 the copious pappus of soft white bristles is a noticeable feature. 

 This character is probably responsible for the name Senecio, 

 which is a modification of the Latin senex, an old man. Doug- 

 las's Senecio is one of the most conspicuous wild plants of the 

 late year in Southern California, a period when the floral tide 

 is at its lowest. 



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