Balsamorhiza. COM POSITyE. 



347 



43. RUDBECKIA, Linn. Tonk-flowkr. 

 Head many-flowered, hetorogainous, with noutral my -flowers, raroly lioraogamoua 

 by the absence of these ; disk-flowers perfect. Invohicre of foliaceou.s commonly 

 unequal scales in one or two series, mostly spreading. Kcccptacio remarkably ele- 

 vated, in ours columnar, at least at maturity, so that the [)erfect flowers are spicate ; 

 each flower subtended or partly embraced by a chafl". Rays long and nearly entire. 

 Disk-corollas cyliudraceons, r)-toothed. Akeiies quadrangular and mostly laterally 

 compressed, smootli, crowned (in our sj)ccics) with a persistent chad-like cup or 4 

 chaffy teeth more or less united into a cup. — Chiefly perennial herbs, with nlternute 

 leaves, disk-flowers from dark brown to greenishyellow, and mostly yellow rays ; 

 all North American, l)ut ordy two west of the Rocky Mountains. 



1. R. Californica, Gray. Stem simple, about .3 feet high, .3 - .5-leaved, the 

 long and naked peduncle-like summit bearing a single largo head : leaves finely 

 soft-pubescent, 3 to 5 inches long, varying from ovate to oblong-lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, pinnately veined, somewhat toothed ; the middle ones sometimes with a pair 

 of lateral lanceolate lobes at base ; uppermost sessile ; lower tapering into a slender 

 petiole : scales of the involucre linear : rays 2 or 3 inches long, narrowly oblong, 

 yellow : disk columnar, one or two inches long, dusky brownish : akenes com- 

 pressed-prismatic, 2 lines long, crowned with a pappus of 4 irregular thickish chaffy 

 teeth more or less united at base into a cup. — Proc. Am. Acad. vii. 357. 



Wet grassy places in the Sierra Nevada : at the Mariposa giove, Bolnndcr. Previously col- 

 Iflotoil by lhi(fi/(i/i, porhap« in tlio nanio diHtrict,. 



U. onOMiKNTAMR, Nutt., of Oroj^on and Utnli, dllTorH in its Hniootli mid nioic nnnicionn nn woli 

 RS broader loaves, and has no rays at all. 



44. BALSAMORHIZA, Hook., Nutt. Ralsam-koot. 



Head many-flowered, heterogamous, with fertile ray-flowers, and perfect disk- 

 flowers. Involucre hemispherical or broader, of more or less imbricated scales, the 

 outer loose and herbaceous or often foliaceous. . Receptacle flat or barely convex, 

 with linear-lanceolate chaff (often with herbaceous tips), subtending and partly 

 embracing the disk-flowers. Rays oblong or lanceolate, with short tube (deciduous 

 except in one species) : disk-corollas cylindrical. Branches of the style of perfect 

 flowers slender, hispid throughout or on the long filiform appendages. Akenes of 

 the ray obcompressed (i. e. flattened parallel with the scales) and oblong, of the disk 

 prismatic-quadrangular or more or less compressed. Pappus none. — Low peren- 

 nials of Western North America, mostly of the arid plains ; with thick terebinthine 

 roots, chiefly radical leaves, and scape-like stems ; the few cauline leaves alternate 

 or occasionally opposite, and the rather largo head of yellow flowers con\monly soli- 

 tary. (Named from the resin or balsam of the root.) 



The thick roots, or tubers, from which sometimes tlie turpentine-tjistcd resinous bark is peeled, 

 are cooked for food by the Indians, especially in Oregon, under the names of Pnxh, Kdyoum, &c. 

 Tlie seeds are also eaten. — Besides the species here described, 



B. (Kaluactis) Cauf.yana, Oray, of the interior of Oregon, forms a peculiar Rnbgenus, having 

 rays which become papery, like those of a Zinnia, and jiersist on the fruit ; the akenes are cinere- 

 ous-pubescent and all (luailrangular, those of the ray less flattened (olx-om pressed) than is com- 

 mon in the genus. Tlte stem, moreover, bears several heads. 



B. MACR0rnvi,LA, Nutt., of the no(;ky Mountain region only, is a genuine sixries, near the 

 variable B. Jfookcri, and like it with leaves both undivided and ninuatejy parted on the same 

 root ; but these or their divisions are entire, almost glabrous ana smooth, and the involucre is 

 generally foliaceous. 



