Wijethia. COMPOSIT^C. 



349 



more truncate and produced (at tlio angles) into 1 to 4 chaffy rigid awns. — Peren- 

 nial herbs ; with simple (rarely branching) stems from a stout root, rootstock, or 

 caudex, alternate mostly entire and ample leaves, and solitary or few and largo or 

 middle-sized heads of yellow llowers. — Nutt. Jour. Acad. Pliilad. vii. 38, & Trans. 

 Am. Phil. Soc. 1. c. 351 ; Gray, Proc. Am. Acad. viii. G.'54. Alar<;onui, DC. Prodr. 



A genius of several species, all niitives of the region between tlie Uoeky Mountnins and tlie 

 Pacific ; — (ledicntedhy Nuttnll to Captain Wyeth, with wlioni he nftcrwards crossed tlie continent 

 and by De Candolle, two years later, to Hernando do Alarcon, a nol)le Spanisli navigator who first 

 (in 1540) visited and surveyed the coast of California. It is to lie regretted that tlie "enus cannot 

 commemorate one of the earliest explorers of the country : but the name may designate a section. 



§ 1. A/cenes thick, obtusely qnadrangtdar, croivned with a conspicuous calyx-like pap- 

 pus of ovate or lanceolate coriaceous teeth more or less united at hase into a 

 cup: heads very large and broad (the disk l)^to2 inches in diameter); invo- 

 lucre ope7i and leafy. — Alar^onia, Gray. 



1. W. helenioides, Nutt. Soft-tomentose, or with ago becoming almost gla- 

 brous a loot or two high : leaves oblong or oval ; radical ones a foot or more long, 

 4 to () inches wide; caulino about half the size, all contracted at base iuto a short 

 lictiolo : lieails mostly leafy at base : outer scales of tho involucre ovato-lanceolato or 



ovate, sometimes toothed : akenes more or loss pubescent at top when young. 



Gray, PI. Fendl. 82. Alan^onia helenioides, DC. Melarhiza inuloides, Kellogg. 



Hillsides ; common near San Francisco and through the valley of the Sacramento. Akenes 

 liajf an incli and tho pappus 2 or 3 lines long. Teeth of i\w corolla ovate-lanceolate, somewhat 

 hairy outside. 



2. W. glabra, Gray. Green and glabrous throughout, minutely resinous-glan- 

 dular or viscid : leaves otherwise as in the preceding, or more commonly tooUied, 

 and the upper perhaps narrower : akenes and pappus glabrous, the lobes of the lat- 

 ter minutely ciliate. — Proc. Am. Acad. vi. 543. 



Hillsides, San Luis Obispo to Marin Co. (A specimen from Rolander's collection is said to 

 come fioni Mount Dana, at 12,000 feet; but some error is to be suspected.) Heads nearly as 

 large and leafy as in IF. helenioides, the bracts or leafy involucral scales often surpassing the 

 rays. Disk-corolla with ovate wholly glabrous teeth. Foliage said to have a viscid exudation 

 of agreeable odor. 



§ 2. Akenes leas thick, and with acute angles, at least those of the disk laterally com- 

 pressed : heads less large. — True WvrTiiiA. 

 * Involucre hemispherical or broader : pappus short and aivnless. 



3. W. ovata, Gray. Tomentoso with soft ])ubescence : stem 2 feet or more 

 high (apparently from running rootstocks), leafy, occa.sionally branching : leaver 

 broadly ovate or the larger somewhat cordate, acute or acuminate, 3 to G inches 

 long, all petioled : involucre an inch in diameter ; its scales broadly lanceolate, 

 seldom equalling the disk-flowers, mostly with a coriaceous erect ba.so and more 

 or less spreading acuminate herbaceous summit : akenes linear-oblong (about 4 lines 

 long), minutely pubescent, crowned with a pappus of G or 8 short and broad 

 unequal chaffy teeth, all of them somewhat united at the b;ise. — Proc. Am. Acad, 

 vii. 357. 



Dry hillsides, Mariposa Co., from the foot-hills to above the Yosemite, Bridges, Dolandtr, &c. 

 Bays 10 to 24, about an inch long. 



* * Involucre narrow, of rather feiv erect scales: pappus 1 -4-atvned. 



4. W. mollis, Gray. Tomentoso Avith very soft white wool, which is partly 

 deciduous with age : stems 2 or 3 feet high, often bmnching above and bearing 2 to 

 4 racemose naked lieads, rather leafy : leaves oblimg or sometimes ovate, 3 to 9 

 inches long, becoming rigid and prominently reticulated, contracted at base into the 



