VEXEGASIA (Venegasia carpesioides, DC.). Flower heads 

 showy, 2 inches across or more, yellow, composed of both disk 

 and ray florets, the latter 15 to 20 in number, usually entire 

 and acute but not infrequently toothed or gashed at the tip; 

 heads few, terminal, and in the upper axils on short footstalks. 

 Leaves alternate, thin, slender-petioled, ovate with a somewhat 

 heart-shaped base, resinous-dotted underneath. A leafy per- 

 ennial, frequent on rocky banks of streams and under the 

 shade of trees in the canons of the Southern California moun- 

 tains below 3,000 feet; blooming in summer. 



The general aspect of Venegasia suggests a sunflower. The 

 smoothness of stem and herbage is, however, in marked con- 

 trast to the harshness of the sunflower plant; while an exami- 

 nation of the flower head reveals several differences. In Ven- 

 egasia, for instance, the receptacle is naked, and the ray florets 

 fertile, while in the sunflower the receptacle is chaffy and the 

 rays sterile. The name Venegasia was given in commemora- 

 tion of Padre Miguel Venegas, a gallant old Jesuit missionary 

 to the Indians and early writer on Lower California. 



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