404 



COMIHJ.SIT.E. 



late, tapering and acute : heads munerous, spicately clustered in a leafy panicle, 

 ovoid or globular, luoaely woolly-canescent or becoming glabrous. — The typical 

 forms are common tlauughout the northern portion of the Old "World, especially in 

 Asia. 



Var. Californica, IJesscr. Stems commoidy simple and tall : leaves sparingly 

 pinnatilid, 3 - T) -parted, and the upper merely toothed or entire. — A. hettrophylla, 

 Nutt., &c. 



Dry soil, not rare near the coast from San Francisco northward (a very large form at Shelter 

 Cove, Humboldt Co., Bolander) : also in the Sierra Nevada. A very widely spread and most 

 variable specius, into wliicli both the following appear to pa-ss by transitions. 



4. A. discolor, 1 )ougl. Low and slender, a foot high : leaves green and gla- 

 brous above, iinely cottony-tomentose beneath, nearly all once or twice ])innalely 

 parted into narrow linear lobes : heads smaller, si)icately clustered in a narrow and 

 rather naked mcemedike panicle, globular, nearly glabrous. 



Sierra Nevada at Ebbett's Pass, &c.. Brewer. Thence northward and eastward to the Cascade 

 and the Rocky Mountains. Exactly the yl. discolor has not been met with in California. The 

 specimens are between it and some forms of the preceding, and, with the Nevada plant of King's 

 Exi^edition, varying to A. incompta, Nutt. 



5. A. Ludoviciana, Nutt. From one to three feet high, cottony-tomentose 

 tliroughout: leaves oblong, lanceolate, or linear-lanceolate, entire, sparingly toothed, 

 or some (d' the lower occasionally 3 - 5-clt'ft, the upper surfaces ometimes losing its 

 wool ; heads very numerous ancl spicatcly clustered in a narrow and usually clcuso 

 panicle, ovoid or globular, small. 



Dry open grounds, Monterey and elsewhere in the western part of the State (with broad and 

 entire leaves, Ilartwcg, Rutlan, &c.) : more common, in Jiarrow-lcaved forms, on the eastern slope 

 of the Sierra Nevada, thence abundant to and nmch beyond the hocky Mountains. 



§ 2. Floivers hetefOf/amoits, as ia the preceding section, but only the jdstiltate jUnvei's 

 at the marrj in fertile ; the ovary of the otherwise perfect flowers abortive, their 

 style mostly undivided and tufted at the apex. — Duaounculus, ])esser. 



•+- Fertile akenes and corollas glabrous : stems herbaceous or barely woody at base. 



6. A. dracunculoides, Pursh. Green and glabrous, or a little i)ubescent 

 when young, branching, 2 to 4 feet high, in tufts : leaves linear, entire, some of the 

 lower rarely 3-cleft : heads small and very numerous in an ample compound leafy 

 panicle, mostly ixulicclled. 



Common in the Sierra Nevada, also found westward (banks of San Leandro ("reek, Jiolandcr ; 

 Fort Tcjon, Dr. Horn) ; and through Nevada and Oregon to beyond the Mississippi, lleatls 

 only a line or so in diameter, glabious. The herbage is destitute of the sharp odor and taste of 

 A. JJrocunculus. 



7. A. pycnocephala, DC. Densely silky-villous all over : stems mostly sim- 

 ple, a foot or two higii, somewhat woody at base : leaves once to thrice pinnately 

 parted into ratlier few and crowded chiefly linear lobes : heads numerous, spicately 

 clustered in a dense virgate panicle. — Also A. pachystachya, DC. 



Sand hills along the coast from Monterey to Humboldt Co. Heads fully 2 lines in diameter : 

 involucre very villous. 



-»- -»- Fertile ahtnes and the corollas villous with long crisped hairs : stems woody. 

 [Picrothamnns, Nutt.) 



8. A. spinescens, D. C. Eaton. A span to a foot C)r so high, -with stout and 

 spreading rigid branches, bearing .sharp spines, villous-tomentoso : leaves small, 

 petioled, pedately once or twice ])arted into linear-spatulato or oblong lobes : heads 

 rather few and loosely racenutse or sjjicate on a persistent si)inescent rhachis: scales 

 of the involucre few (f) or G), round-obovate, lua'baceous with scarious margins. — 

 Bot. King Kxi). 180, t. 1!). Ficrothamnns dest^rtorum, Nutt. 



